


The Saltwater Tower

by naturalselection



Series: Saltwater Room [4]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, F/F, F/M, M/M, Science Fiction, Series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-07-09
Packaged: 2018-06-06 05:34:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 48,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6740536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naturalselection/pseuds/naturalselection
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With some of the trolls and kids rescued from the Condesce's grasp, they have newfound time to dig into their past and discover secrets about their origins: clues that will come in handy when they launch their final assault upon her and rescue their friends still held captive. There is no love lost between the trolls though, and they must learn to work together before they can begin to form a plan.<br/>But they have to hurry, as before long the sea witch will also release her final wave of destruction on the earth. <br/>Their only choice is to meet her at the top of the Saltwater Tower before it is too late.</p><p>The story is sci-fi and dystopian mostly, with adventure, romance and a Battle Royale/Hunger Games feel to it, set on Earth in roughly 2090.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In which strange events are revealed

**Author's Note:**

> **== > Shit, be Sollux when he finds Vriska!**

" _Vrithka_!" Sollux shouted as he wandered about. The girl had walked off somewhere, presumably embarrassed over their fight/make-out session/heart to heart, or so he thought anyway. " _You've done way worthe, I'm only judging you a bit_!"  
After ten minutes of walking, he began to get concerned, and traced his steps back to the edge of the forest where they had parted ways. Tracking had never been his forte; mostly because his glasses somewhat obscured his vision, and while he was much better at containing the optic blasts now, he still did not want to risk removing them. For another while he saw nothing of use, only the slightly trampled grass where they had fought... of course, he had not left her at the forest at all! Idiot, he told himself.  
A little further ahead was the spot where he had really left her. He called again, " _Vrithka_!"  
He paced about the site until he noticed something suspicious: drag marks. This did not look good, and without another thought, Sollux began to sprint, following the drag marks. Whoever it was being towed along, they clearly did not want to leave. The heels of the shoe were dug deep into the ground, occasionally coming up, presumably to attempt to kick whomever was dragging. A few shrubs had been pulled up or stripped of their leaves as well, and on these a small amount of blood.  
Bright cerulean blood.  
" _VRITHKA_!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. After five minutes of sprinting he saw a body. Vriska's. He dropped to his knees, before frantically taking her pulse, but there was nothing.  
Nearly all her skin and clothes were saturated with her blood, and her eyes were still open, face contorted into an expression of utter fear and hopelessness.  
A few months ago, Sollux would have welcomed the scene with open arms, hell, he would have even spat on her and announced 'good riddance'... but not anymore. If Tavros could see good in her, then Sollux decided that despite her heartless bitchy exterior, he would give a shot at being her moirail. After all, he knew better than anyone the damage she could cause if she was allowed to run about uninhibited.  
But not anymore. She was dead, and there was no way she would be coming back. No more games or tricks or meddlings. Vriska was gone.  
Sollux removed the shards of metal holding her limbs down and examined them. At first he had assumed one of the Condesce's underlings had found and killed her, but that did not seem to be the case, for they killed with bullets, and the Condesce wanted her alive anyway. Perhaps it was an enemy she had made when she was human, but that was unlikely, for they would not recognise her. A human who had just seen a mutant and wanted to attack? Unlikely again, for there was malice in this attack, though having said that there were doubtlessly huge numbers of people who had lost families and friends to the Condesce and would be more than happy to take it out on the first mutant they saw.  
Upon further examination of the body, he found that her back had been snapped, which was a very specific wound to cause, and one that made little sense. He cast his mind to any trolls who had a vendetta against Vriska, and chuckled darkly, for that was basically all of them.  
Only three candidates made sense from the trolls: Terezi, Gamzee... and Aradia. Yet Aradia was dead, so she could be removed from the list. Terezi 'dealt justice' against Vriska at the fights for Vriska was no longer the girl she had once known, having become more violent and cruel. Gamzee, well he had been in love with Tavros, and upon finding out that Vriska had been the one to both torment him and capture his affections, well Sollux had only heard rumours but what he had heard was not pretty. That had been one of many reasons that Vriska was kept hidden away from the other mutants.  
Of course, Tavros himself could have harboured a grudge, but that seemed unlikely as he had forgiven her to Sollux's knowledge.  
The cuts on her body seemed random at first, but he soon noticed a pattern to some of them. Along major bloodlines were smaller punctures to the skin, and in very specific locations. As a gold blood he was well aquainted to siphoning, as people of his cast were frequently targeted. Their blood was touted as boosting intelligence, tasting great (the hell) and if used correctly would give the drinker the ability to see the future for short periods of time. Gold bloods were targeted the most by siphoners along with olive bloods, and as such he recognised the signs well, but did not know what it meant. He had overheard Vriska telling Tavros that she used to siphon, but it was clear no one else would have known of that, and thus he grew even more confused.  
It was looking like Tavros had the knowledge for all the attacks, as no one else knew about the siphoning, but lacked the want to kill her.  
Sollux sighed. There was no use deliberating over this; Vriska was dead and he would never know who did it. The girl was by no means light, even though she had lost almost all of her blood, but he was determined to at least try to make some sort of grave for her; it was the least he could do after they sort of became moirails, and besides, it would be what Tavros would want.  
Eventually, he got her a dozen metres from the edge of the forest, then went in to collect branches and young trees, weaving them into a low hanging hut of sorts. Sollux wiped the blood off her the best he could, before folding her into a foetal position and placed the woven hut over her. Hopefully it would allow her body some peace before it began to get torn apart by scavengers.  
After picking up his bag, he then left, refusing to get overly emotional when he still had a while longer to travel.

* * *

 **A week later.**  
"This is Gihney Reyuok, reporting from Tain Falls, a town just on the border of an unexplainable phenomena that has been causing an immense stir. Now sometime yesterday morning, everyone who has crossed too far into the grassland to the east of this town have fallen into a deep unrousable slumber. Rescue efforts involving rope have been successful, but only if the victim was close to the boundary when they were affected by whatever this is, with a 90% chance of them waking after.  
'Here we have a brother of one of the victims and lead of the rescue operations with us. Please tell us what we know so far, Mr Gurreu."  
"Well we've tried gas masks, biohazard suits... uhh, just plain holding our breaths, hell, even tin foil hats! But none have been able to return. Now, we've now been experimenting with what little robotics we still have left but unfortunately we haven't got anything larger than a drone,"  
"So you're going to be trying to find the root of this, this event?"  
"Hopefully, ma'am. We have been able to get within about 100 metres of the centre of the fallout zone though,"  
"And what did you see?"  
"Well that's the darnedest thing, ma'am. It looks almost like there's some sort of, uhh, massive cocoon out there, just on the borders of the forest. Now, what we may be able to do is bomb it with these drones, but at the end of the day these are all just toys and won't make it that far, so we're experimenting still,"  
"Have you spoke to any experts on cocoons?"  
"Yes, we were very lucky to have a bug scientist living in out village, though she said that the cocoon was like nothing she had seen before,"  
"Do you have any images?"  
"Of course,"  
"Okay, so for our listeners at home, this can best be described as a large round cocoon, it looks almost like a spider's egg case, and on the side are what appear to be a pair of eye spots, presumably to warn off predators, and size wise it appears to be about one metre tall, and one and a half metres for both width and length, I've just been informed. Now then, how... what? Oh God, the border is expanding FUC-"  
Krrrshtttttttt.

* * *

 **== > Wait... Vriska isn't dead is she?**  
Error: requesting information about deaths is not permitted.  
**== > Yeah yeah. Ummm, be the Handmaid!**  
You cannot be the Handmaid, but you can follow her about.  
**== > But that's the same thing?!**  
You are now following the Handmaid, who has been ordered to report to the hall.  
Initially the maroon blood was confused at her orders. Due to her future self helping some of the mutants to escape, and another one of her copy's inability to bring out a pair of human's powers, the Handmaid tended to be confined to her cell, with the exception of exercise sessions twice a day with the Condesce. Reporting to the hall was not something she had to do since before all the mess, which meant one of two possibilities: the Condesce had forgiven her (very unlikely), or that there were more mutants to train and the sea witch did not have anyone else to do the job. After all, no one could defeat the Handmaid in a training-new-recruits-off. She was simply the best there was.  
Thus, here she was, stood with her back against the wall in the food court next to the other tutors and the head of security, waiting for the Condesce.  
The remaining mutants from the original twelve sat close together somewhat miserably around a single table. Only Terezi, Kanaya and Gamzee were left, though Gamzee was left in the Condesce's chambers for the protection of the non purple blooded mutants.  
Suddenly, the doors burst open as the Condesce swaggered in, followed by Doc Scratch and a cluster of mutants. She took her place behind the podium and waited for the trolls to take their seats. It was then when the Handmaid noticed a strong flush on the empress' cheeks, the bruises and the scratch marks all over her shoulders, neck and back, and she pulled a face. The idea that someone would want to even talk to a rogue purple blood let alone sleep with one was completely beyond the Handmaid. And to have clearly been engaging in... something... right before a talk was as unprofessional as it got. Urgh. No wonder the Condesce had been late.  
"Good evening. I would not usually address you personally like this, but I have exciting news. First, it is my pleasure to introduce six new mutants to take the place of those lost. As you may or may not be aware, Mr Zahhak and Ms Leijon perished in the floods, along with Mr Vantas, Mr Ampora and Ms Peixes being killed by the humans after being caught. As for Captor, Serket and Nitram, we have a good idea on their location, so we should have them caught and returned soon.  
'To replace these deaths, we have Meenah, Cronus, Horuss, Meulin, Mituna and Rufioh. The new teams are as follows: Team One: Terezi and Rufioh. Team Two: Kanaya, Meenah and Cronus. Team Three, Gamzee, Horuss and Meulin. Each team has been assigned one original mutant to help the new mutants with life here. As for you, Mituna, meet me after this talk; I have something special in mind for you," the Condesce said with a smile that did little to placate those in the room.  
The Handmaid recognised the tyrian seadweller from the creepy vehicle the Condesce had taken her to. Presumably these were all the mutants or whatever they were that she had been able to salvage.  
'Next, is that we are all going to be moving to a new base," With a wave of her hand, the projector turned on, showing an enormous glass building jutting out of the ocean in a somehow obnoxious manner. Though the Handmaid would not know, Terezi was thinking to herself how similar it looked to the American base they visited, and then blunk back tears as she remembered that her team mates for that mission had both died. There was time for tears later, in private.  
"All underwater floors will be for any refugees who come, should they decide to surrender to me. All those abovewater are the replacements for this building. You are all my guests of honour, and as such you will be living right below my suite, where I can keep a better eye on you. I shall be creating another flood, one that will rid humans of even more landmass so we should have plenty of followers to help wipe out the last remains of humanity.  
'The move will be taking place in an hour, so get your personal belongings together and wait in your sleeping quarters for an errand boy to escort you to your plane, of course, this only applies to those who have such things."  
The Condesce then turned to the three tutors behind, and told each of their group, informing them to escourt the new to the plane.  
"Group one, excluding Terezi, to me," called the Handmaid. Before her was a boy about her current age at seventeen. "Oh, of course, only one 'a you. I'm the Handmaid, and I'm your trainer,"  
"Uh, I'm Rufioh. Do... do we have to pretend like we don't know each other, Damara?"  
"Well not to sound like a joker, but this is genuinely the first I've seen a' your lot," said the Handmaid with a frown. "So you can stop that from eatin' you,"  
"Right,"  
The name Damara did sound oddly familiar, but she had been called the Handmaid all her life. How bizarre. Making a mental note to quiz the boy later, the maroon blood then led him the plane.  
He seemed intent on avoiding all eye contact with her throughout the walk, and once they were outside waiting for Terezi and Kanaya it only became more pronounced.  
"Is something the matter, kid?" she aasked, but was met with an awkward silence. "Suit yourself,"  
The plane journey to the new base was equally awkward, even with the addition of Terezi, for it was clear she was doing her best to avoid breaking down into tears. While there were many things the Handmaid was good at, comforting people was not one of them, or not at this age anyway. The other teams were talking amongst themselves, with the exception of Kanaya, who quickly took a seat beside Terezi before they began murmuring softly to one another.  
Though she would liked to have seen this new base that they were moving to, all windows on the plane had been covered up and as such the Handmaid had not a clue where she was going. Disappointing. How would she knew which direction to escape now?  
A future version of her had done so, but that was when they had been situated in the US. Escaping this new base without a boat would be impossible... Damn.  
The Handmaid rested her face in her hands and pouted subconsciously. ' _At least I know I escape in the future. Though I have no idea how..._ '  
After an hour of flight, most of the new trolls fell asleep, with the exception of the fushia blood. Putting this down to their recent 'birth' from the weird machine the Condesce had, the Handmaid turned to Meenah.  
"Hey, mini Condesce?"  
"Me?"  
"Yeah. How d'you end up in that machine, if you don't mind me askin',"  
"Nice try, but I've been forbidden to tell anyone about that upon pain of death. The boss has even implanted something into me so she can listen in at all times. And this collar ain't just for show either. It'll shock me. Glubbin' weird but what can you do,"  
"Huh, okay then. Guessin' you don't feel as doggone tired as the rest of you machine babies,"  
"Nope, did my time for that post wake up nap a while back. Worked well for me," Meenah smirked, splitting her hair into two chunks. Then, she began the process of braiding what she had left, as the Condesce had ordered it cut to her mid back.  
"Ain't that the cat's pajamas," the Handmaid smiled, clutching her knees close to her chest. Something about the girl felt familiar, and she welcomed any chance of knowing who she was and where she came from.  
**== > Who even is the Handmaid?**  
You are not permitted to know.  
**== > Oh come on! Please!**

 **== > Reminisce about tragic past**  
The Handmaid thought back to her childhood. It was not something she dwelled upon often, deciding that keeping the past in the past would be best for her, but something about Meenah seemed to trigger old memories in her.  
Her earliest memory was-!  
Suddenly, the plane jolted down into a rough landing, and the new trolls were jolted awake violently, some shouting out in confusion and fear.  
"Stay calm everyone," the Handmaid shouted. "This is just how the plane lands. It's old,"  
Sure enough the door opened and they filed out, some a little shakily. One of the new kids vomited over the side of the building, Horuss, she believed. The Handmaid wrinkled her nose but said nothing.  
"So, uhh, how come you were in the plane with us, and not the rest of the staff?" Ruhioh asked as they waited for an errand boy.  
"Someone had to watch over you kids," she replied absentmindedly, keeping an eye out for the staff's arrival.  
"You're barely older than the rest of us," Meenah snorted. "You're a prisoner as well, right?"  
"Drop it, bearcat," replied the Handmaid. "I'm in charge here,"  
"No you're not, or you wouldn't be getting so angry and flushed!"  
"Oh stop being a gimlet!"  
"A what?" Rufioh said.  
"A bore. Just be quiet, or I'll have half a mind to throw y'all into the sea,"  
"Excuse me," said the serene voice of an errand boy. The Handmaid had never been so pleased to see one; it always pissed her off when her students realised that she was as much of a prisoner as they were. "I'm here to show you to your rooms,"  
"About damn time," the rust blood muttered before talking in a louder tone. "Follow me, kids,"

* * *

 **== > So we don't get to hear her tragic back story?**  
Not today.  
**== > Okay then. Well... is Eridan okay? Let's be him!**  
You are now Eridan Ampora and your body is full to the brim with an awful cocktail of drugs.  
When Eridan awoke, he could feel the tension hanging thick in the air, and a glance at the window to his left revealed that he was still placed far beneath the surface of the ocean. A haze fogged over his mind and body, possibly the result of drugs, with the only part of his body in focus being the stab wound on his leg, which seemed to pulse painfully.  
The trio of soldiers in the room noticed his waking, and instantly marched over, untying him from the bed and instead handcuffing his hands, as Eridan was too out of it to fight back. He was strapped into a wheelchair, then pushed out of the room by one soldier, the other two standing in front, and behind him. Due to being so slumped forwards the mutant saw barely any of their journey, instead seeing only his gown clad lap.  
"I'm surprised you still have that streak in your hair," commented the soldier pushing him. "Thought you'd have gotten rid of it once you left your career as a teen hearthrob and began fighting for that insane leader of your organisation,"  
"It makes him look like such a stereotypical villain though, that'll be why. He always was obsessed with his looks wasn't he?" the guard in front of them suggested. "How you manage to bleach and dye your hair is beyond me though,"  
"Sa mutshn," he murmured, slurring his words heavily.  
"A mutation? As if a mutation would give you a little purple hair streak!"  
"Enough!" barked the guard at the back. "We're not here to chat,"  
The corridors fell silent once more.  
"We're not supposed to chat _but_ I've got to know what on earth is going on with his horns," sighed the guard pushing him. "Are they real or what? It makes no sense for the same species to all get different horns,"  
"Real," he managed.  
"I don't believe that for a second!"  
Eridan was vaguely aware of the guard talking at great length about the science behind horns, but it was too much for his drugged brain to understand so he blanked out after a matter of seconds.  
The chair stopped.  
"Excuse me! I'll be taking him from here on out," a new voice said. He heard shuffling before the chair began to be pushed once more. "Eridan, isn't it? I heard about your leg, you poor thing. Hopefully the drugs are taking the edge off that. Let me know if you need anything when we get to our destination, okay sweetie?"  
"Wus goin n?" he slurred.  
"Someone very important wants to speak to you, flower," the woman pushing him replied. "Don't be scared though, she won't hurt you,"  
Eridan managed a snort, before noticing all the strange huffing sounds coming from behind him.  
"Wasat nois?"  
"Hm? Oh, don't worry about it, everything will make sense when you meet her, my lovely," This mini pep talk was accompanied by the woman giving his hair a quick stroke, as if to calm him. It was too weird. "Ah! Here we are. Hang on just... a second... there!"  
The sound of a door opening filled his ears, before the comforting sounds of a fireplace replaced it, and a warm amber glow lit him. With a considerable amount of effort he lifted his head up to see into the room, and saw none other than... the Condesce?  
"E-ridan!" she sang joyfully, and rushed up to enclose him in a tight hug. "I'm so shore-y about all that happened. We couldn't risk her knowing that you were anyfin more than a prisoner here until you went under the knife to get those horrid implants removed,"  
This was not the Condesce.  
"F-Fef?" he asked, before she pulled back and he got a good look at the woman's face, and suddenly there was no doubt it was his childhood friend. " Fef! Thought you wer ded, prncess"  
"Oh dear, you're still so drowsy from the medic-ocean. That's to be expected, you've been sleeping for a good week!" Feferi frowned. "Su, is there any chance you cod help him with that?"  
"Of course my dear, he's not going to try and kill anyone now, are you, pet?" the woman who pushed him in smiled, before leaving the room.  
"Whozat?"  
"That is Supura Pyrope, one of the highest renowned lawyers in the UK. Terezi's mother. She and Terezi have been communicating psychically for years now, and the informa-shore-n she has given us has been invaluable. Unfort-shore-nately Terezi cannot know that her mother has been working to free her for years, as the Condesce would take it out on her," Feferi said while absentmindedly playing with her hair. "But that's not why you're here. I'll explain all that when Su gets back with somefin for your drowsiness."  
After five minutes of one sided small talk, Terezi's mother returned with a nurse, who injected what was presumably another drug to lessen the effects of whatever had been slugging about in his veins. After a few more minutes, his head fully cleared, and he sat up straight in his chair.  
"I don't knoww wwhat you wwere feedin' me for the pain, but it wwas total owerkill wwhatewer it wwas,"  
"Pff!" Feferi quickly covered her mouth with a hand as she began to giggle. "How is your accent still so thick?"  
Eridan shrugged, a small pout on his face before asking, "So howw come you're not a prisoner? I.. I heard your screamin' before the coms cut. Fef, wwe all thought you wwere dead."  
At this, Feferi frowned, and Eridan knew she meant business, which meant no fish puns. A welcome change, though hearing all the silly puns did make him feel at ease again.  
"I imagine that's exactly what the Condesce would want you to think! Apparently she told Terezi today that you and Karkat died on this mission. Those screams you heard were genuine though, I thought I was going to die when they caught me, and then I woke up about a day later, out of it like you were, but in an interrogation room. They asked me all sorts of questions, and... I just told them everything. Some of the guards clearly held resentment against me for my mutation, and many still do, but the interrogator was amazing. She was so patient and kind, she let me have time for my head to clear, and didn't, you know, hold me accountable for all that has happened.  
'Once I told her what had really happened, she took me in for a personal meeting with the US president, and I told him what I told her and he decided that he trusted me."  
"Yeah wwell they _wwould_ trust you ower me wwouldn't they!"  
"Whale you're not exactly known for your kind and gentle personality, sunshine," replied Feferi with a roll of her eyes. "Anyway, the reason you're here is because we're hatching up a plan. Our knowledge of how the Condesce and her armies work is going to be used by the humans to fight back for this planet, before we lose even more landmass.  
'There are rumours that the Condesce is making an enormous floating city to harbor all the refugees, and we have managed to find the location of it. She's using those poor little carapace people to do all the labour on it, but it's almost done, or so we can tell. But that isn't the worst bit at all! She's going to release another flood. I guess there was another icecap we didn't know about, but regardless, she plans to use this as a means of getting refugees to travel to her base if they fight for her,"  
"Right... so wwhat do wwe do? Wwe're of no use anymore, wwe hawen't got any inside information now,"  
"A pair of seadwellers is always useful. Plus if needed we can always return to the Condesce as if we escaped,"  
"She wwould never buy that, princess,"  
"She's grown even more cocky than usual. You'd be surprised,"  
"And wwhat about Kar? He's not a seadwweller. Speakin' a' wwhich, wwhere is he? I assumed he'd be here wwith us,"  
"He's still recovering from the operation to remove all the listening devices. He's really tired, but he should be round in a few hours. He's barely slept at all the past month, from what we can tell,"  
Eridan snorted, "Sounds right. No wonder he's always so crabby,"  
"Maybe that's why he's codename cancer," Feferi suggested with a sly smile. "Anyway, enough beach-ing about Karcrab- oops! Karkat. Enough beach-ing about _Karkat_ , we have more to talk about,"  
"Like wwhat?"  
"Have you heard more information about team eight?"  
"You mean more information about Sollux? No, I hawen't,"  
Feferi flushed angrily, "I meant all of them!"  
"She is asking on my behalf too. I knew Vriska when she was a child," Ms Pyrope said, interrupting the seadwellers. "She was childhood friends with my Terezi. They used to be so sweet together! Oh, you would not believe it knowing how Vriska is now, but she was the _cutest_ little thing before she hit the dreaded teens. I'd always find them in the garden together, hunting down millipedes and spiders so they could keep them as the pet of the day. They even insisted on wearing matching little outfits on non uniform days to pretend they were twins,"  
Eridan just listened to the woman with his mouth agape, "This... are you sure you're talkin' about Wriska Serket here?"  
"Quite sure! Oh, I should have brought my photo albums! They were utterly precious. It breaks my heart to know that my poor Terezi is out all alone and scared in that awful place, but knowing that the little girl I knew could be... well, in an even worse situation somewhere,"  
"Ter wwon't be alone. Kanaya, a jade blood, is still wwith her, and I'd trust Kan wwith my life. So you don't need to wworry about howw Ter is alone," Eridan said, hoping he could put the saccharine woman at ease. He then wondered how a blind woman could take photos, but decided that Terezi's weird skill of smelling and tasting colours had to come from somewhere. "So, uh, wwhen you say they wwore matchin' outfits, wwhat do you mean by that?"  
"Oh!" cried Ms Pyrope. " I just remembered, I have a photo on my phone. Of course it's useless now what with all the phone lines being broken, but it's still got a good camera on it. Here, this is from when they were... hmm, seven I think?"  
The woman passed Eridan her phone. On screen was a picture of two little girls in yellow raincoats and matching oversized wellingtons, both giving enormous grins at the camera, while giving the other bunny ears, thinking they were being subtle. Su was right, they were damn precious.  
"Me and Tezi had just gotten back from a holiday in Japan to visit my father, and of _course_ it was raining as soon as we got back on English soil! And here's another one when they were both fairies in their year three play,"  
"Never thought I'd say this about Vriska of all people, but she reel-y is cute! And so is mini Terezi, wow!"  
"Wwhat wwas Wriska's home life like if you don't mind me askin'?"  
"Ahh, the poor thing. It was not ideal to say the least. Before Vriska's mother was born, her grandmother had a relationship with a bronze blooded man, and of course back then that was frowned upon and so she was cast out by other high bloods to live in a mid blood district, where she met Vriska's grandfather. Though she was killed along with her partner when Vriska's mother was about fifteen, and it was all downhill after then for Spidermum, as Vriska liked to call her. I met her in one of those support groups for single mothers, when she was about eighteen, and she looked so miserable I knew I had to try and help, but she decided the only way for her was down the more illegal routes, and I could do nothing more for her. If I reported her, Vriska and her sister would have gone into a cerulean care home, though after her mother was arrested for siphoning and murder, well I know now I should have just reported her and fought for the girl's custody,"  
"You made the best choice with what you knew at the time, Su," Feferi said, resting a hand on the older woman's arm. "I'm sure that Vriska really appreciated all the time she spent with you too! Vriska has made some bad choices as well now, it sounds like she needs you,"  
"It's just knowing that my inaction resulted in Vriska killing and inadvertedly eating people just... I wish I could make it up to her and her sister, though of course what remains of her family are dead now,"  
"Hold up. Wwhat?"  
"Vriska's mother ate the bodies of her victims. I think I must have gone round for roasts at their house a number of times as well. Makes me want to throw up when I think too hard about it. I can only hope poor Vriska doesn't ever find out... This conversation got dark suddenly! Sorry my lovelies,"  
"So you had Terezi at eighteen too?" Eridan asked before being elbowed in the ribs by an angry Feferi.  
"No no, I don't mind! I had Terezi in my thirties. I guess all this information is important now. My mother was killed before Spidermum was even born, by Vriska's grandmother,"  
"Wwait, so all of our ancestors wwere connected?"  
And thereee it is!" Feferi piped up. "That is what we found out! All our ancestors were linked. And do you know what else we found out? Do you remember that purple blood who stabbed you?"  
Eridan shuddered at the memory, then said, "Yeah I do. Wwhat about her?"  
"We found her on a missing persons database. Guess who her cousin is?"  
At this, the prince put his face in his hands in that typically melodramatic way he had. "Don't tell me it's fuckin' Gamzee, I swwear to God,"  
"Well I don't know what to say then! But whatever, all of the other children who we... killed, they were our cousins or half siblings. And this was not the first time they did this. Remember the rainbow drinkers when we first arrived? They were another batch of mutants that had to kill like we did, only they got infected by something,"  
"We have found almost everyone's ancestors, bar Aradia's, Sollux's and Equius'. I don't suppose you would know anything, flower?" Su added.  
"Wwell, I remember Wriska going on about howw she wwas sure her trainer wwas related to Aradia a number a' times,"  
"Oh, you knew Vriska well then?" smiled Su brightly. With anyone else, he would have bragged about how they _totally_ slept together every night (leaving out that it was only sleeping next to one another as opposed to sex), how rough their make outs were and so on... but this woman knew Vriska when she was a little girl so that would be damn weird! Feferi shot him one of her impish grins, and he realised he was flushing heavily. "My, are the two of you an item?"  
"Not anymore. Used to be though,"  
"Oh! Eridan, you're hungry I bet!" Feferi said suddenly, changing the topic to one less awkward. "We haven't got anything amazing here, but there's a farm of sorts in the middle and higher floors so there's vegetable soup if you want it,"  
"Uh sure, hit me up,"  
At that, Feferi got up and left the room for a hunt for soup, before Ms Pyrope began asking how Vriska and Terezi were, how tall they were now, and if they still had lessons on maths, English and science.  
The pair spoke for a while before a soldier came in carrying a tray with steaming soup and a bread roll on. While it was nothing compared to the food at the Retainment Organisation, it was still heaven sent after not eating for so long. As he ate, Ms Pyrope casually chatted to him, asking about all manner of topics, such as his favourite subjects when he was at school (history of course), what he wanted to be when he was older and such.  
It was as he was telling the woman about how he would love to be the general of a fleet of ships that Feferi burst in.  
"They've located Equius and Nepeta!"  
"Wwhat?"  
"They've been living in a small town for the past few months. It looks like the locals only just realised that they were mutants, so they're being held in the prison for their safety, as most of the people in the town want to kill them,"  
"Wwhat are wwe goin' to do about it?"  
"Rescue them, silly! I couldn't let fronds rot in jail!"  
"Didn't knoww you wwere friends wwith Equius. Nep, sure, but Equius?"  
"He's pretty creepy most of the time, but I think he's just shy! Though of course it could be because I'm a fushia blood so he was only being nice because of that. Either way he's not so bad once you get used to him, otherwise Nepeta couldn't stand him!"  
"Siblin's don't mind that stuff as much though do they? But wwhatewer. Let's bust them out," Eridan sighed, lifting himself out of his chair.  
"No, neither of us are going. They won't let me because I'm 'special', and you're too weak obviously,"  
"Surprised you're standin' for that, Fef,"  
"I don't personally agree with it, no. But they've done a lot for me so I'm letting them have this,"  
"Wwell so far the only thin' I'we noticed is that our cell is a lot fancier. Doesn't seem at all like they're wwantin' you to be their co-lead or wwhatewer,"  
"You've been awake for all of two damn hours, you little beach!" pouted Feferi before sticking her tongue out at him. She then added in a serious tone, "Besides, there's a lot more to leading than simply getting your way all the time. Compromise is a huge part of successful leading. Not that you'd know!"  
"An' wwhat's that supposed to mean?" Eridan replied haughtily.  
Feferi grinned at him, "That you're a little shellfish!"

* * *

 **== > PFF! Too many bad puns! Be someone else!**  
You are now Aradiabot, wandering aimlessly though forests and grasslands alike.  
After the brutal murder of Vriska Serket, Aradiabot knew not what to do with herself. Killing Vriska had been such a driving focal point in her existence for so long that she felt lost. Though it had been little over a week since the event, the robot was still debating on what to do.  
Was she really a human soul in a robot shell? How could Equius even bring about such a thing? Whatever she was, Aradia grew increasingly concerned at the emotions swimming about in her skull. Sitting before the ocean helped calm her mind, and she spent long passages of time watching the waves, as she had while wondering what to do with the Vriska dilemma.  
While debating on whether to just walk about on the sea floor for a while, a message appeared, as if there were another voice in her mind, but one that spoke in a dry monotone, as if reading aloud a message.  
' _Aradia, can you hear me? It's Equius_.'  
"Equius?" she said aloud, then added wryly, "What are you doing inside my head? I thought it was my job to do all that stuff!"  
' _There's no time for humour. Can you meet us at these coordinates_?' he replied, with a location appearing in her mind.  
"Why should I?"  
' _We need your help, please Aradia_ ,'  
"Fine," she frowned. "Why are you in the middle of the ocean?"  
' _It's basically a big boat, hurry Aradia! :33_ ' said another voice that was clearly Nepeta.  
With a huff, Aradia got into her pre-flight stance, then took off. Thankfully the flight was much shorter than her last one, and after a full days flight she landed on the top of what appeared to be a skyscraper emerging from the waves. The sun was setting in the distance, falling below the endless expanse of water before her, a sight that made her oddly sad.  
Shortly after her arrival, a trap door in the floor opened up and out of it came Nepeta, Equius and Feferi, the latter of which looking rather shocked.  
"Aradia, is that really you?" the princess asked.  
"Feferi! Ah, you look so grown up now, it's been too long," Aradia smiled, feeling more like the girl she used to be after seeing her old friend, and they hugged tightly, the seadweller tearing up until she was flat out crying into the robot's synthetic shoulder.  
"I can't believe it's reel-ly you! Glub, aaah gosh!" the fuchsia blood laughed. "Sorry about the tears, I'm just so happy to sea you again!"  
"Me too!  
"Well it's been, what, three years or some-fin since… you know. You look older too, somehow. I have absolutely no idea how it happened but water-ver he did, Equius did a good job,"  
"Ahh, thank you, your highness," replied Equius, looking noticeably flustered.  
"Don't worry about it," Feferi said, before linking her arm through Aradiabot's and all but dragging her into the building with her. The seadweller's strength was surprising, it was not far from Equius' in fact. Perhaps super human strength ran in the highblood's genes. "Come on! We have so much to talk about!"  
"Feferi, I would love to catch up with you later, but for now I need to talk to Nepeta, please," Aradiabot said with a sheepish expression.  
"Oh, of course don't worry about it! I'm just glad the three of you are safe. Let one of the guards know when you want to come back inside, and they'll take you to our rooms, kay?"  
"Merçi, Feferi,"  
"Well, you didn't die. What's up?" Nepeta asked once Feferi and Equius left.  
"I killed Vriska,"  
Nepeta's eyes widened in horror, before she pulled her 'I'm really mad but trying to conceal it' face, which she used often when the three of them were in the Retainment Organisation.  
"Well, how do you feel now?" the olive-blood replied in a clearly annoyed tone. "Is there meaning to your life now?"  
"Cut the attitude! You have _no idea_ what I've gone through!"  
"No idea? My family are all dead, and the only ones still around didn't want me because of my blood caste. But you didn't see me hunting them down when we lived in the UAE to go kill them!"  
"I am sorry for your loss, but they did not _kill_ you," Aradia sneered.  
"They may as well have! I was a _child_ and they left me fur dead. Do you even know Equius' relation to me? His dad was fur-iends with mine in university. That's it. If not fur that I have no idea where I may have been dumped. But again, I focus on the good, my real family, the Zahhaks. They're not purrfect, but I love them. I don't waste my time thinking about the others,"  
"That is completely different, and you know it,"  
"I know it's not the same, but I'm trying to get you to understand," Nepeta sighed, frustrated, then asked, "How was Vriska when you saw her?"  
"She seemed… happy. She was moirails or matesprits with Sollux, though they'd just been… blackrom kissing. I'm not sure what was going on between them,"  
"Sollux is alive? Feferi will be happy, though not about the Vriska stuff. Still if she wasn't just winding you up, it seems you've got a pissed off Sollux on your hands now."  
"Why wouldn't she like to know about Vriska and Sollux?" Aradia asked, ignoring the other part of what Nepeta said.  
"Sollux is Feferi's boyfriend," Nepeta said. "They're utterly infatuated with the sounds of it, or were. Eridan told me when I asked about… uh, the gossip I'd missed,"  
Aradiabot's face reverted into the blank state that was the default for the fake muscles, a sign that she was very shocked, and how her internal circuits were experiencing somewhat of an overload from the flood of emotions. Vriska had been lying… or telling the truth rather about Sollux and Feferi. All this for nothing. While it was unlikely that she had a chance with Sollux after killing his moirail (she assumed that was what she was to him anyway), now she knew his heart was firmly with Feferi she knew she had no chance. Part of her mind told her that if Feferi was no longer in the picture then Sollux would be available, and Aradia knew not what to think.  
' _What have I become_?'  
"Oh, Aradia," murmured Nepeta, and before Aradia knew it, the olive blood had enveloped her in a tight hug. "There's no need to cry,"  
Cry? Aradia brought her fingers to her cheek and felt a liquid on the synthetic fabric of her face. Synthetic. The sensors in her fingers identified the silicon, then something in her mind told her about the slight wear and tear the seawater had done to the artificial skin on her legs, and the robot girl then clutched Nepeta closer, buried her face in her neck and began to loudly weep.  
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Nepeta,"  
"Shoosh you! I'm angry that you ignored my purr-fectly advice when it came to Vriska, but at the end of the day I'm not the one you should be apologising to. Is this what the crying is about?"  
"I don't know what is wrong with me! I used to be such a nice happy girl, and now here I am murdering people,"  
"We've all grown up dif-fur-ent. It's exactly what T.R.O.L.L wanted. I know for sure that if we didn't have all this stupid mutation stuff going on that you would be a happy normal girl,"  
"But I'm not! I'm not a… a happy normal girl, I'm a fucking robot! I'm glad I'm alive again, but I'm stuck in this stupid metal shell and all I think about is killing people and getting revenge on all those who hurt me, and… I don't know what to do! I hate being like this,"  
"Maybe Feferi could help you? She dealt with Eridan fur years and we all know how much anger she helped ease,"  
"No, not Feferi," replied Aradia, shaking her head furiously. All that she had learnt about Sollux and Feferi, and the thought she had about killing the poor girl for something as insubstantial as a crush, she could not bear to face her.  
"Why not… oh. Of course, is that why you're upset?"  
"Sorry, it's so stupid! I just… I don't know, everything just got to me all at once I guess. It's not just the Sollux thing, it's also being a robot and all this aggression… I don't know,"  
"Sounds like you need a moirail. I would but my hands are full with Equius, and I don't even want to think about how bad he would be without me," Nepeta said apologetically.  
"That's fine, I understand… I just, when you told me about Feferi and Sollux, part of me just thought that killing her would be the best option, and I don't know why! Why am I like this?"  
"Listen, I know you really don't want to talk to Feferi, but I think it would help a lot. She really is the best there is when it comes to this kind of stuff. You don't need to tell her about the whole wanting to kill her thing, but I really think she could help you. I know you won't kill her. Now shoosh. Go talk to Equius when you're ready about the aggression issues. If it's a problem with your programming then he should be able to fix it,"  
"Alright," Aradia sniffed. "Thanks,"  
"That's okay! You're not a bad person… or robot, whatever. E-fur-ryone makes mistakes, you've just got to try and be a better person now,"  
"Okay, I'll try,"  
"Just to warn you though, Terezi's mother is also with the others, and she knew Vriska as a child. You're going to have to break the news to her,"  
Aradiabot nodded at this, a sombre expression upon her face. "You still don't trust me, do you?"  
There was silence for a while, before Nepeta eventually answered, "I don't know how I feel,"  
At this, the robot turned her eyes out to the ocean again. "That's fair. Who else is here?"  
"Currently, its us three, along with Feferi, Eridan and Karkat. They almost got Terezi, but they lost her at the last minute unfortunately,"  
They walked to the doorway, before the soldier standing guard passed them onto another who began to lead them to where Feferi was waiting.  
"Oh, they have Karkat, do they?" the robot said with a sly grin as they followed behind the woman leading them about. "I'm sure you appreciate that,"  
"Shoosh! I don't even like him!" Nepeta exclaimed in a barely hushed whisper, though the flush on her face said otherwise. "I don't know where e-fur-ryone gets this idea!"  
The soldier took them through the building and into a warm room with a fireplace, where Feferi, Eridan and Equius were sat beside one another, accompanied by a tall older woman. Their soft conversation halted at the entrance of Nepeta and Aradia, with Eridan clearly gawking at Aradia's chassis.  
"Why don't you take a photo?" she replied dryly, before tapping Equius on his shoulder and asking to have a private word with him.  
"Wwell sorry, not like I see a sentient robot a' a dead girl i used to knoww ewery day is it?" huffed Eridan. "Jeez,"  
While walking out, Aradia noticed the lack of Karkat in the room, and wondered what had happened to him.  
The two of them were taken to an empty conference room instead of the landing pad on the roof, then left alone with instructions to press a button on the wall when they wanted a soldier to come escort them back.  
"What is it, Aradia?" Equius asked once their escort had left the room.  
"You know that chip you put in my he-art?" she said to him, trying her best to keep a strict poker face. It worked until her voice broke in the final syllable. She cleared her throat. "The chip you put in my heart."  
At this Equius turned his face to look at the floor to his left.  
"Yes, I know the one,"  
"I can't be bothered to argue or fight about this, I just want to know one thing. Could it possibly cause aggression in me?"  
The mechanic seemed to be shocked at this, for clearly he had been expecting another fight and hell he certainly deserved it if that had been what Aradia were planning.  
"Ah, no at all. It was only supposed to… well, stimulate romantic feelings of attraction… to me," he muttered in response. "Aggression would be a stupid thing to include in it,"  
"Are you sure? This is very important," she insisted. "There isn't a chance that the… forceful removal of it could have caused some short circuiting or something in my emotions, is there?"  
"Well, I guess theoretically the forceful removal of the chip could have caused a problem. Would you like me to check?" he offered, and after a period of awkward silence, Aradiabot gave a curt nod, before slowly laying herself down on one of the desks.  
Her mechanic pulled up a chair and lowered himself into it, then reached a hand out towards the chest panel, "Do you mind?"  
"Sure, though it would have been nice if you asked last time," the robot said softly, anger strongly present in her voice, though an anger she was trying to hold back. "Go ahead,"  
Pulling out a number of tools from his belt, he placed them on the table before him, then picked up his item of choice and unscrewed a number of minuscule screws to reveal a small panel inset between her breasts. A code was then entered, which made another panel retreat, allowing a small latch to be seen, and upon being pulled, made the left half of her chest click and slowly swing to the side, and under all this, an artificial heart.  
"I repaired the damage before we left the UAE, there should not be a problem here, though I shall check anyway. We were in somewhat of a rush so it is possible I made a mistake" he murmured, clearly so into his work that he did not sweat profusely as usually would. Aradia stared at the ceiling, trying to avoid looking at the boy for she was still in a foul mood and wanted to avoid violence.  
They remained in the same position for a further ten minutes as Equius ran tests and the like on the robot's heart, ensuring that there were no errors on it or the surrounding area. It was incredibly surreal for the girl to see her heart beating literally in the hands of someone else, and she was not sure quite how she felt about the situation.  
"Equius," she said eventually, as she had grown bored. "I have to ask. Why is your screen name so… you know?"  
At this he froze, flushing a little, then continued his work.  
"I have always loved horses, and as such one of the maids bought me one of those anatomy books about them for my birthday, so I could begin drawing them if I so chose. For whatever reason, the chat client I joined with Nepeta only allowed me to pick a username that had the initials C T, and naturally I picked a centaur for the first word, then picked a random piece of horse anatomy that began with a T from the book's dictionary at the back. I promise you I knew not what it meant at the time, though it is still only a piece of anatomy in the end. Just one with slightly more… sexual connotations," he explained.  
"Sure," she snorted, the grimaced as one of the tools he was using dug into part of her insides.  
"Careful, I'd recommend against laughing while I have tools inside your chest,"  
After another few minutes of fiddling about in her chest, Equius shut the panels, put in the screws then asked her to sit in the chair before him. This time, he pushed her hair over her shoulder and began to undo screws situated at the base of her skull.  
Aradia could feel her heart beat beginning to increase as his fingers brushed over the skin on the back of her neck, and was very thankful he was not fiddling about around her false heart. His breath fanning out over her shoulders suddenly made her breath hitch, a strange thing for someone who does not breathe.  
"Are you okay?" he asked.  
"I'm fine," she replied quickly, doing her best not to move her head at all.  
Damn these feelings! This was a boy who had literally installed a microchip into her heart to give her feelings for him, what was she thinking?  
But she had to know. She had to know why he put a chip in her heart.  
"Equius?" she asked. "Why did you do it?"  
He froze.  
"Why… did I do what?"  
"You know what,"  
He said nothing, but finished unscrewing the bolts in the back of her head, and after pulling a similar latch as the one on her chest, the two halves of her head parted and opened out, allowing her equivalent of a brain to slowly rise up and click into position.  
"I… I have not got a good answer,"  
"I need to know what you were thinking," she replied, a hint of pleading leaking into her voice.  
"I think you already know why I did it," His words were barely audible they were so quiet. "I am sorry,"  
"What was that?"  
"I am sorry, Aradia. I caused you a great deal of hurt, and gave you a perfectly valid reason to distrust and hate me,"  
His words were met with silence.  
"It was a stupid decision,"  
"But _why_ did you do it?"  
"I'm infatuated with you," he finally admitted. "I did not know what to do. I had behaved so awfully towards you the past few years so I took a reckless and drastic approach. One I did not think through,"  
"So that's why you gave me blue blood,"  
"That, and also ease of acquisition. I know the siphoning trade is not immensely difficult to find, but as far as the rumours go it is immensely expensive to purchase blood, especially in the quantity I needed,"  
"So not only did you force me into having feelings for me, but you gave me your blood so you could feel better about said feelings!"  
"Yes. I see how that it was wrong, I'm sorry,"  
"Sorry isn't going to take back what happened,"  
"I know,"  
They fell silent again as Equius began to work on her brain. Aradia closed her eyes for a second, then once open again noticed the light outside had changed; rather than it being completely dark, the sun had begun to peak over the ocean. Had she fallen asleep?  
"I have finished. My apologies, it seems you fell into a sleep mode while I worked, though it was probably for the best,"  
"How long were you working?" she asked  
"I'm not sure, several hours though,"  
Part of her was flattered that he had done such a thorough job to help her, though there was still the element of distrust, and as such she ran a quick scan on her body to find what had been changed. As she read through the list her robotics had provided, she asked, "Did you find anything?"  
"I did not find any physical problems that would have indicated increased aggression, however I did find indications that someone may have been accessing your mind. I ran some minor updates and fixes though, which should prevent anyone else tampering with your emotions or breaking into your mind,"  
"What do you mean by someone has been accessing my mind?"  
"I found suggestions that someone may have been hacking into the hard drives that make up your mind. How though I'm not sure. But I'm not certain if anything has happened or not, like I said I only found suggestions, no proof,"  
"How could you know for certain?"  
"Catch them in the act, or ask someone who has better knowledge of hacking than me,"  
They paused, trying to think of hackers they knew.  
"Sollux would certainly be the strongest choice, but none know where he is. As for Karkat, I have memories of him bragging about his skills at hacking but I very much doubt their validity,"  
"But there is no way that there's something in my mind that would make me aggressive?"  
"Not that I found,"  
Aradia did not know how to feel about such a thing. On the one hand, she was glad there was nothing wrong with her mind, but at the same time it meant that the aggression had come from her, and that was terrifying.  
"Okay, thank you," she said, and stood up from the chair. As they headed for the exit, perhaps because her circuits were still slow from just waking up, she turned and added, "I just… I wish you'd never put that microchip in me!"  
"I know, I'm truly sorry, Aradia,"  
"No, you don't understand. I liked you, Equius! You didn't need to put a chip in my heart! I was with you every day for years, and I couldn't feel anything, but something kept pulling me back to you instead of just wandering around by myself. And I was stupid enough to believe that you had actually changed, and got past all the stupid caste stuff, and you were stupid enough to ruin everything with that fucking chip!"  
Equius' face turned to one of flushed horror.  
"Oh,"  
" _Oh_? Is that all you have to say? You idiot! You can create a complete working robotic body from scratch but you don't even know how to just, just _talk to someone_ and tell them how you feel!"  
"Aradia, please, I'm sorry for all this but you must calm down, this isn't good for you,"  
"Why don't you install another chip in me! That sure would do the job wouldn't it? Ugh! I just… I hate you!" shouted Aradia, who then covered her mouth with both hands in shock, then whispered softly, "I hate you,"  
"Ah,"  
"You just, ugh! You have the gall to be so nice and make me this body and, and you used your own damn blood for it! And then you screw everything up, and look so fucking attractive while doing it. I said it, you're attractive, puberty was very good with you after the sweating phase, but would it _kill you_ to just use more deodorant and tie your hair back or _something_ , like, you have no idea how to look nice, who the fuck wears tights with cut offs? Shorts sure, but _cut offs_?" she rambled angrily, then noticed Equius' gobsmacked expression. "Stop looking at me like that!"  
"I'm so sorry, I never knew,"  
"Of course you never knew, you don't know how to talk to people! I hate it!" she snarled, before bursting into a fit of relieved laughter. "I'm glad I got that off my chest,"  
"Yes, well," Equius replied, looking incredibly uncomfortable.  
"Well what?"  
"Is my hair and clothing really that unattractive?"  
With a roll of her eyes Aradia tugged out what was holding her hair in a ponytail, but found it to be a piece of now dried seaweed, so threw it out the windows and hunted about in the drawers instead for an elastic band.  
"I can't believe the secret base for the US doesn't have elastic bands," she huffed, before eventually finding a pot of them in a filing cabinet and marched over to Equius, tying his hair back in a low ponytail, excluding the strands that were just short enough to escape the band. Aradiabot took full notice of the hitch in his breath as her fingers brushed over the back of his neck, and smirked for now he was in her situation. "There, already better,"  
His hair had grown much longer over the years they were in the Retainment Organisation, and then in confinement, and this look suited him much more than his almost navel length, freely flowing hair. At least he had bothered to take care of it, unlike some boys Aradia had once known. They gazed at one another for a few seconds, before against her better judgement Aradiabot leant in and gave him a soft kiss on his mouth, one very different to the last they shared. It was warm and gentle, their clasped hands swinging loosely at the waist  
Then without saying a word, she broke it off and left the room to find the soldier. They did not talk again that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for how late these chapters are on here! Tbh the only reason is that I couldn't think of a title for this section, but the current title works and I'm pleased with it uwu  
> Thanks to everyone who commented on this and reminded me to update :D these are for you <3


	2. Fight or Flight

Air.  
The lungs expanded for the first time in a while, and the sensation was so alien that a coughing fit ensued. Eyes cracked open and saw diffused white light coming in through a silk like material, a light that briefly blinded said eyes, until their hand reached out before them and pushed against the fabric before them, finding it to be tough enough to resist tearing.  
At this, they began to panic, fearing that they were trapped and thrashed about in an attempt to break free. Eventually they found that their teeth worked just fine on the material, and they ripped their way through it until the harsh sunlight made them flinch back behind the tattered sheets.  
'What is going on?' they wondered, as they reached an arm out to lift themselves… oh. The arm in question was a cold hue of grey, with almost exoskeleton like plates of hardened raised skin giving the skin an armour-like quality to it. And the other arm, a heavy hunk of metal.  
Vriska brought her hands to her face and stared at them in disbelief. How was this possible? She had died, that much was unmistakeable, and suddenly she had just woken up again in a new body without so much as a warning… but this could not be a new body, for she still had the robotic arm Equius had made for her.  
But regardless of what body she was in, whatever had happened in the afterlife, she had forgotten it, and though it was somewhat maddening, she was glad. Enough was going on with her life without knowing about what would happen when people died.  
The only thing at the forefront of her mind was Aradia, and whether she knew of Vriska's revival. Then a cloud of other thoughts emerged: how long as she been asleep, was the Condesce still around, were Tavros, Sollux and the Handmaid safe (or at the very least well), was she still human… and the thoughts overwhelmed her mind before she could think of nothing more than steadying her breathing, lest she break down. But the air felt so fresh and warm in her lungs, so she stepped out of the cocoon, and her eyes were hit with the sight of leaves shifting in the wind, their gentle sound like music to her ears.  
Hands balled into fists before Vriska hid her face in them and loudly wept. Even she did not know whether the tears were from joy or simply being overwhelmed by the sensation of living again. Perhaps both.  
She cried for the best part of ten minutes, fear melting away before she flung her hands away from her face and laughed loudly at the sky. It was a visceral and raw pleasure that coursed through her system, the kind that came about from beating death, and boy had she just done that.  
Cackling, Vriska spun about from the sheer joy of living before she noticed three things. One, that she was completely naked save for her robotic arm and glasses (whomever had put her in the cocoon had placed them just outside it). Two, that there were a very strange and wrinkled pair of appendages extending out from her back. And three, that in the distance her ears could pick out a large and very angry sounding mob.  
Typical.  
As if her luck could not get any worse! First she died, and now she had to face a mob naked and possibly deformed. Having said that, she had managed to steal back her life, so that had probably used up her luck for years to come.  
First, Vriska took the end of the cocoon and bit three holes in it, enough for her head and arms to get through, before grabbing some of the thinner torn strips and tying them about her middle as a makeshift belt. It was perhaps the worst outfit she had ever worn, but she had little choice and did well considering the circumstances.  
Next, she attempted to get a look at the strange things on her back, but without a mirror it was near impossible and as such she decided that whatever they were, they would have to wait.  
Finally, she took off into the forest, hoping to get a head start on the mob. Unfortunately, she could not find any of her things other than her glasses (how her broken spine had been fixed, and the countless amount of blood had replaced, but something as simple as poor vision had not even been touched was a mystery to her, but she was not going to complain), she hoped that Sollux had found them somehow.  
Vriska could hear the mob getting closer, and swore, willing herself to run faster. Thankfully the hardened plates of skin she seemed to have grown enabled her to run barefoot quite happily. The same went for hardened pads on her fingers and palms. It was not the most attractive feature, but Vriska cared not for such things anyway, especially when such features were so useful.  
It was only after she was far enough away for the sounds of the mob to have almost completely faded that she slowed her sprinting and instead chose to climb one of the tall trees of the forest, cursing to herself at how she was having to backtrack. At the top of this tree she saw a route that would enable her to climb up the mountain face enough to reach a small ledge, one that would give her a great view of the region. Thanks to the talons her nails had mutated into, climbing up the rocky wall was just short of a breeze, and before long she found herself sitting comfortably on the ledge, watching the mob crowd about her discarded cocoon.  
To her relief, it seemed more as if they were curious as opposed to angry or on some sort of murderous rampage, and so she watched as they prodded the cocoon. Her ears picked up their conversation on the wind, though she could not make out any of the words annoyingly enough.  
Instead, she attempted to move the limbs on her back about further to get a good look at them, and found to her surprise that what she had thought to be a pair of horribly mutated limbs were actually wings that had yet to unfurl properly. As soon as she realised this fact, part of her mind instinctively began to pump blood into the wings, making them slowly open up until an enormous pair of wings reached out from her back.  
"What the actual fuck," she muttered, inspecting them the best she could. From what she could see, they appeared to be most like the wings of a glasswing butterfly (a species Tavros spoke about with great passion when he went on one of his fairy rambles), with large eye spots and a subtle iridescent blue shimmer on the membrane that made up the majority of the wings. From what she could tell, they looked damn pretty, but flying with them was a whole other kettle of fish.  
There was absolutely no way she could fly on them. No matter how large they were she was simply too heavy, especially with her robotic arm. And how did one even fly anyway? She had no mother bird or butterfly or whatever to teach her how to fly. Unlike Feferi and Eridan who simply had to sit in a swimming pool a little to learn how to use the gills that came with their mutations, Vriska's would likely involve having to leap off the side of a cliff, and that was something she could not do without dying. Cheating death once was nice, and she did not think she would have the luck to do it again… that is, until her ears twitched as she picked up the sound of talons scraping on rock behind her, and she turned just in time to see a large mountain lion scaling the mountain side to get to her. "Shit!"  
Split second decisions had never been an issue for her before, but when given the choice of falling to her death with the off chance of catching a tree if she was lucky, and being mauled by a mountain lion on a small ledge she froze.  
Vriska then snapped her wings open as wide as she could and leapt off the ledge, finding to her delight that she began to soar very slightly, though veered off to her left pretty soon due to how heavy the metal arm was. Before long, she had lost enough height to just about safely grab onto the approaching tree trunks, but right as she was about to reach her arms out, a strong gust of wind caught her up and sent her rushing towards the moors, where she soared over the heads of the mob, who gave started shouts at the sight of an enormous fairy like creature. She soon gained height as she climbed up what felt like warm rising air and rode along the occasional strong gusts.  
It seemed that in becoming… whatever it was that she had become, she had lost an insane amount of weight somehow. While she did look a lot skinner, she had not grown any shorter to her knowledge, and so she decided that there was more to the weight loss than simply losing muscle and fat while in her cocoon, or the blood loss from her death, as her robotic arm had always seemed light in comparison to the rest of her body but now it was physically dragging her down.  
Being so high up above everything was a sensation like none other though. She flew over all manner of animal, and sometimes saw the odd tent, though she made sure to avoid human settlements for fear of being shot at, for in all fairness Vriska decided that if she saw a humanoid figure with enormous wings flying overhead she would probably be a little shocked as well.  
She had never felt so free, it was as if she had become an enormous predatory bird, with nothing but the chilling wind on her face to remind her that this was not intact a dream. The sun warmed her entire body, but it could not quite counter the bite from the air around her, and though uncomfortable she still found it pleasant enough. In fact, the only real complaint she had was that her glasses did not fully block the wind from getting in her eyes.  
All of the problems on Vriska's mind seemed to melt away as she inspected the ground below her. Movement on the ground seemed as important to her as the wanderings of small insects, and about her all she saw was the odd cloud, moving at a slow pace, reinforcing how timeless it felt in the sky.  
Air rushed over her wings, her face, her body, roaring in her ears. Hair whipped about her face. Muscles pushed and pulled and pushed. The sun was a faint dazzling light in the corner of her eye.  
Simplicity.  
In the sky she was no longer Vriska Serket, no longer a mutant or a human or an alien or whatever she was. In the sky she was simply alive.  
Vriska loved it.  
After another few minutes of gliding she grew tired and eased into a controlled fall in place of a proper landing, deciding that until she got proper muscles for flying it would be far easier to walk. The landing was as rough as she expected, though the hardened panels of skin on her body protected her well and thus she only had a few grazes.  
"Wow," muttered Vriska as she picked herself up. Flight had been amazing, and she thoroughly wished to fly again, but for now she folded her wings up the best she could and began to trek once more, rubbing her robotic hand over the skin of her remaining arm, even though it did little to warm her.  
Flight had helped her cover a lot of ground. Much more than if she have been walking in fact, though regardless, night was falling and she wondered whether it would be better to simply keep walking or attempt to find shelter and sleep the night off. She barely got away with using her powers to hide her horns properly, let alone an enormous pair of wings, so Vriska debated if there would be any point in even attempting to hide them.  
'I've slept enough,' she eventually decided. 'I'll walk until sunrise, then I'll sleep.'  
Little of interest happened on the walk overnight. Occasionally she would pick up the sound of people on the wind, and attempt to hide the best she could until they passed. Once in the night a woman travelling alone tripped over Vriska's wing, resulting in a hasty mind control experience that reminded the cerulean blood all to much of the events that caused her and the rest of group eight to be split up.  
As the moon touched the horizon, the terrain changed back to a more mountainous, forest covered one, and Vriska became aware of an odd smell. Cooked meat. She recoiled, and scrambled up the nearest wall of rock to gain high ground on any potential humans. Once at the top of this rock wall, she walked along it until she could spy the source of the smell, sitting beneath a ledge for shelter, and found to her great surprise that there was no campfire, but instead a burnt carcass of what was once perhaps a feral dog.  
No one was around, so she debated as to whether she should go take a closer look, but for the meantime Vriska sat and waited, just in case anyone returned. Rain soon began to fall, obscuring her vision slightly, but from what she could see there were a number of strange scuff marks on the ground around the dog, and still no one in eyeshot or hearing range.  
Vriska slowly shuffled out of the cave, and began to move down the cliff face until a raindrop hit her square between the eyes. At first she noticed nothing, then suddenly a sharp pain exploded across her skin, and upon similar pain on other parts of her body she flinched and let go of the wall by mistake.  
Crash!  
Pain exploded over her shoulders as she hit the ground, but it was not anywhere near as painful as it would have been before the cerulean blood had grown the strange armour plating. The rain was a different story however, and she soon found herself cursing as she dashed down the scree to get to the relative safety of the trees.  
Sollux had been here, and recently, she deducted after seeing the carcass up close. The scorch marks on the ground were unmistakably those created from his optic blasts, which would make sense had he been attacked suddenly by a wild dog as the scene suggested.  
Rubbing her arm in an attempt to lessen the pain from the seemingly acidic rain, Vriska considered making a mad dash down the path to see if she could find Sollux, and then decided upon on it. First she projected a human appearance upon herself, prayed to her lucky stars that the image would hold then sped down the track, holding her forearms up in front of her face to protect it from the rain.  
Before even a minute had passed, her skin was stinging in pain everywhere, and Vriska found herself hissing in attempt to release some of the built up tension. Stepping in the occasional puddle by mistake felt as if the skin on her feet had been set on fire, and tears would begin to pour down her face.  
Suddenly all the elements seemed to conspire against her and Vriska slipped, tumbling down the path until she rested in a crumpled heap.  
For what felt like forever she lay hunched and biting her lip.  
"Oh! You poor thing, are you okay? Let me help!" cried a friendly voice. The patter of boots against waterlogged soil hit Vriska's ears before a fabric clad hand lifted her by the arm. The hand belonged to a pretty girl with a deep tan and big, round glasses. "The rain here is really acidic. It's awful and a sundress won't protect you from it."  
"Uh, thanks," Vriska croaked, glad her mind powers were still holding up after the fall.  
"You're pretty far from home, huh," the girl commented as she moved her umbrella to shield the two of them. "You're British, right?"  
"Yeah, from what's left of the UK anyway,"  
"I guess you heard about the flooding, then?"  
Vriska snorted, "Sure did. Where you taking me?"  
"Village shop. You need to get some cream on any spots where the acid rain hit you or you could get some nasty scars,"  
"Sure, whatever,"  
On the way to the shop, the girl quizzed Vriska on all manner  
of personal information, which put the cerulean blood's lying skills to the test as she wove a web of misinformation.  
Her name was Louane, she was from a rich cerulean family who were on holiday when the war and flooding began. She was separated from them and had been wandering around alone for weeks. Along with this, Vriska had made up biographies for both her imaginary siblings, as well as the jobs of her parents and the aspirations of this Louane character.  
Ding ding!  
The merry jingling of the bell as they entered a small village shop was far too surreal for Vriska, who had not heard such a normal thing since the day she had gone into the town near the tunnels. The cerulean blood held her wings close to her body, lest they get trapped in the door and drew suspicion.  
"Got another one!" the girl shouted as she entered behind Vriska, presumably to another person in the shop. When no one called back the girl wandered out of sight, before Vriska's sensitive ears picked up the sound of soft conversation.  
Out from the other room popped a familiar face.  
"You got hit pretty bad. Just put this wherever you got hit by the rain and the stinging will… is there something on my face?"  
"John! John fucking Egbert! Why the hell didn't you send me any emails?" Vriska snarled, then stopped talking and began to laugh at the oddness of the situation.  
"I… don't think I recognise you?" John replied, bewildered. "Jade, who is this?"  
"I'm Vriska, we met on holiday several years ago, and I gave you my email but you never sent me anything,"  
"Um, well I have no idea how you would know that, seeing as you look nothing like the Vriska I knew,"  
A lightbulb went off in the Brit's head as she realised that they were seeing a fake image of her, and then realised that she was in deep shit.  
"Vriska? You told me your name was Louane!" Jade frowned, then upon hearing some thuds from upstairs, frowned even more and turned to John. "You deal with her, I'm going upstairs,"  
"Got it,"  
It was a credit to the young man that he calmly went about getting the serum while in such a situation.  
"So who are you really?" he asked casually. "You're not Vriska that's for sure, unless she somehow changed her hair, skin and eye colour…"  
"Well I'm exactly who I said I was. I'm Vriska Serket," she replied, flipping her hair over her shoulder so that she could begin applying the cream onto her remaining arm.  
"The Vriska I knew wasn't a pale ginger girl,"  
"People change," At this, John drew his eyebrows together, but said nothing. Vriska knew nothing about how the boy was now. As a cerulean-blood like her, he would most likely have poor views on mutants as most of their caste did, but he never once seemed judgemental so it was a tough call. Until she was certain that John would not call the authorities at the first chance he could.  
John eyed her lazily as she smeared the cream onto her neck and shoulders. "You know what's going on at the moment?"  
"Do you know?" she said, feigning ignorance.  
"All I know is that it was business as usual until that huge flood came out of no where… and then those creepy bug things began appearing at army bases and killed a fuckton of soldiers from almost every country that was still in action," his eyes darkened. "So Jade was telling me about how you were separated from your parents and your brother and sister. Must have been pretty traumatic,"  
"Well… yeah. All done, thanks for that,"  
It infuriated her, but the childish crush that Vriska had once had for the boy seemed to rear its ugly head once more. He really was attractive… in a weird nerdy way. Ugh!  
"You can stay here for a bit if you want. Losing your family is rough,"  
"Oh, well I'm actually… I'm trying to find some people, they said they would be… I don't suppose you have a map, do you?"  
"You don't have to live here forever, just until you get back on your feet," John smiled, noticing that she had gotten a little flustered. "I'll even throw in a look at a map too!"  
With a pout, Vriska eventually replied. "Whatever."

* * *

**== > How is Feferi doing? Be her!**  
You are now Feferi Peixes.  
"Thank you all for coming today," announced Feferi as she took her place at the head of a round conference table. The trolls they had rescued and Terezi's mother joined her, as well as one of the presidents young, personal assistants who was attending to take notes and update the higher ups if anything of importance happened. Up until the meeting had officially begun, however, he had done nothing but sit in his designated seat beside Eridan with a strong flush on his face, or throw confused and fearful glances at Aradiabot. He was about the same age as the mutants, so Feferi decided it was entirely possible that he had been one of many who had a crush on the boy in his teen idol period. "This is Hisyei, one of the US president's assistants, here to act as a sort of messenger between us and the generals and presidents here. Right, let's introduce ourselves!"  
The introductions varied from chirpy to downright forced, the latter causing Feferi to frown a little. When it was Aradiabot's turn, the assistants expression grew more curious than afraid.  
"I am Aradia Megido. I appreciate that this is hard to believe, but I am the soul of a human housed in a robotic chassis," she said, clearly surprising the young man with her soft, accented voice. He had been expecting something more robotic sounding.  
"Um... okay, hi I'm Hisyei, as Fe-Feferi already said. So, I'll uh, just be jotting things down while you, you know, uh, talk. And yeah, don't pay me much attention, just go for it. So, thanks for inviting me,"  
"Thank you fur coming!" replied Nepeta with a smile, the smile quickly faltering as she noticed how badly she had made him jump. The olive blood had forgotten how scary they could look to normal people. At an average of over six foot tall, with a mouthful of shark-like teeth, wickedly sharp horns in an assortment of shapes and their grey, almost alien-like faces it was no wonder the poor boy was feeling nervous. Upon further consideration, Nepeta moved her clawed hands off the table to rest on her lap.  
"Yes, we understand that it must be hard for you to meet with what society would have you believe are monsters," nodded Feferi.  
"Anyone who invites me for a meeting with coffee and homemade muffins can't be a monster," he said with a slightly nervous laugh.  
"Wwhat's ewen in these, Fef?" Eridan asked as he prodded at it.  
"Fish! They're savoury cupcakes," the princess smiled, and upon taking in the disgusted faces of the crowd, laughed. "Just kidding, they're plain. Finding the ingredients was hard enough as it is without scouting down berries or chocolate. Right, let's begin. First, we're going to summarise what we know so far for those of us who haven't been present for all discussions,"  
With a tap of her finger, the lights dimmed and Feferi stepped to the side so those gathered about the table could see the projector screen behind her. Shown were twelve images clustered onto the screen. Most were photographs of people, but some were crude sketches, and others little more than a question mark.  
"These are your grandparents, ordered from maroon blood to fushia. Unfortunately our data is incomplete so not everyone is represented here, and in Aradia's case, we'd had a vague idea at best what was going on, but recent discoveries have changed that!"  
"What's wrong with my grandparents?" Aradia asked, a small crease between her eyebrows.  
"No-fin is wrong with them, it's just that you break the pattern. The other eleven of us have a grandparent of the same gender as us who was connected to at least one other mutants grandparent, but you didn't. Your grandmothers were both normal people. But we traced back further and we did find something. On your mother's side several generations back your line just ends. No birth records or anything, this woman just appears out of no where accompanied by a young man with a similar lack of history,"  
"Wwho wwere they?" Eridan asked, and Feferi could tell she had them all hooked into the story.  
With a smirk, she continued, "We did not manage to find a thing out about the man, but as for the woman we found this portrait hung up in a big abandoned mansion from the 1920's,"  
The portrait showed an older gentleman with pale skin and platinum blond hair, and sitting before him was a young girl, ten at most, with large dark eyes and a strange complexion. Like Dualscar and the Grand Highblood, the face was too long, and the cheekbones were too sharp to be entirely human.  
"It's almost two hundred years old, but this is a portrait of Doc Scratch and a young Handmaid," Feferi said. "We also found a photograph of this relative of Aradia's with the man she was found with and their daughter, and they appear to be the same person, though of course this is guesswork at best,"  
"So this whole time, the Handmaid has been my great great however many greats grandmother, and neither of us knew?"  
"Yep!"  
Aradia nodded, but said nothing, and Feferi could understand that perfectly. It was a lot to take in.  
"So someone you used to know is a time traveler?" the assistant asked.  
"Well it would explain why she seemed to be a different age each time we saw her," Equius murmured.  
"That an' the fact that she spoke like she wwas from twwenties jazz era America,"  
"Guess she really was from twenties jazz era after all. I just thought she was one of those 'I was born in the wrong time' morons, don't I feel fucking sheepish," Karkat grumbled.  
"Wwell it's more likely than time travel ain't it?" Eridan replied. They smirked at one another and then a light flush dusted Karkat's cheeks and he turned away. Feferi decided there was something off about the pair. No matter though, there were things of importance to be getting on with.  
"As you can see we are still missing the ancestors for a few of us, but we are finding more leads everyday!" Feferi said. "We won't be able to ask... ask Sollux any time soon, but Equius, you are the other person without an ancestor we can find. What do you know of your grandfather on your father's side?"  
"Ah, well my family are good at hiding things. I think my father and Vriska's mother used to be good friends, which is how she remained hidden from the authorities for so long. There are photographs of them together when they were younger at least. My grandfather was close with Nepeta's grandmother as well," After a prompting nod from Feferi to go on, he cleared his throat and continued. "He saved her life. It's how Nepeta's parents met, her father was friends with mine from university, and he came to visit at the same time as Nepeta's grandmother and mother were in the area. It was this friendship with the Leijons that resulted in my father adopting Nepeta when her family would not take her in,"  
"Is your grandpa still alive?" Feferi asked.  
"We don't know. A-fur-ter my grandma died he got really depressed, he holed himself up in his room all day, and then one day when we were ten, we woke up and he was gone,"  
"I'm sorry to hear that," Feferi said. "Thank you for the information though. Maybe we can track him down using this. No one is untraceable after all, and if my theory is correct then he could have some very helpful information about how to deal with the Condesce,"  
"Goin' back to Sol, I remember Wris sayin' somethin' about meetin' Sol's grandfather. I think he must be wwith the Condesce, or in the retainment organisation anywway. Kept tellin' me about howw she kneww somethin' crazy from him, but she newer told me wwhat,"  
"Fuck, we need to locate that beach even quicker then if she has such important information. If we can't find Equius' granddad then she's our backup, though I was hoping never to see her again. She could be anywhere though!"  
"Actually, Aradia should be able to find her. The way I make my robotics means they are traceable with the right equipment. Of course it wouldn't be trackable to me or normal equipment, as that would be a lewd breach of privacy, however seeing as Aradia is now entirely robotic she may be able to get a strong sense on Vriska's robotic arm, in theory,"  
"Ah awesome! That's easily our best bet then, thank you, Equius!"  
All eyes turned to Aradia, most expressions looking annoyed but hopeful, with the exception being Nepeta, who looked furious.  
"You didn't tell them?" she snarled.  
"I'm sorry, how am I meant to bring up such a _bombshell_ in conversation?"  
"That's not my purr-oblem!"  
"Et bien, if you're so vocal you tell them!"  
"Not that this wouldn't be amusing as fuck any other time, but someone just spit it out already," Karkat said over the bickering.  
"Well you'd better start looking for my grandpa, because Aradia here _killed Vriska_!"  
The disgust on peoples faces varied from full on horror to mild, with Terezi's mother standing and leaving the room, a hand held to her mouth in shock. As the door shut, Eridan hissed, "Wwhat the hell wwere you thinkin'?"  
"Don't get so, so pompous about it all! None of you know what it's like to be killed and see your murderer just walk away free and have people who you thought were your friends still associate with her! It just… it eats you alive," she snarled.  
"While I do not wish to pick sides in this delicate matter, I should like to add that living as a ghost in my mind for several years after being brutally murdered will have resulted in her emotions festering. Then when she was able to feel again, the surge of anger and betrayal will have consumed her. That, and I have a suspicion that someone has been meddling about in her mind,"  
"Where's your proof? We're going off the words of a crazy robot broad and the sap that's wrapped around her little finger," Karkat shot back. "Vriska was a complete fuckwad, nobody is gonna deny that, but killing her was a bad move… especially since she's pretty important suddenly,"  
"How was I to know that? She's a bitch who killed me and screwed up almost everyone's lives!"  
"Wris wwas actually separated from eweryone else for her owwn safety after your death," Eridan commented. "'cept me a' course,"  
In a similar manner to Ms Pyrope, Eridan began to go into shock at the death of his former kismesis and hid his eyes behind clenched fists as his body shook violently. His attempts to hold in his anger and tears failed miserably.  
"She deserwed it I can't deny that but… wwere you quick at least? She gawe you that wwhen she killed you,"  
"I… stop making me feel bad about this! I took the woman who completely ruined my life and stopped her from messing it up again! I'm trapped inside this fucking metal body for the rest of my miserable life now thanks to her, I hate it! Fuck you all!" Aradia snarled, before storming out the room.  
Upon witnessing how alarmed the assistant looked, Nepeta leaned over and whispered, "These things aren't usually this dramatic, I swear,"  
With Feferi hiding her face in her arms as she tried to calm down from sheer frustration, Nepeta decided to take initiative.  
"Equius! Go check on Aradia; you're the only one she can't rip apart. Eridan, take a break and come back when you're ready. Karkat, Feferi and… Hisyei was it? Let's get back to work, there are other ways around this,"  
As the others left the room, Feferi raised her face from the safety of her folded arms and muttered, "Aradia's hardly going to help us now is she?"  
"Oh don't worry about her, Equius will talk her into it, and if not I will. But anyway, Aradia was telling me that she overheard Vriska and Sollux talking be-fur she killed her, and she mentioned something about Sollux being Vriska's meow-rail or kismesis… it was really confusing but yeah. I don't imagine that Tavros is that far from Sollux so if we can find Tavros then we can find Sollux and hope that Vriska told him some of the in-fur-mation that his grandfather told her,"  
At this, Feferi broke into a big grin and hugged the olive blood. "Thanks, catfish, you always know the best things to say! We have a game plan, try and talk to Aradia then. We need to locate Tavros,"  
"Easily done,"  
"Karkat!" Feferi barked.  
"What?"  
"Go after Eridan,"  
"What, why the fuck would I want to be anywhere near that bulgemuncher, especially when he's in a mood like this?" he replied in his usual tired-of-everyone's-rubbish tone.  
"Because Nepeta and I are busy, and I don't want Eridan to mope a-boat in his room for hours straight alone. You seem to get through to him a lot better than everyone else anyway," she said with a sly smile. "Now shoo! We have plans to scheme,"  
With a heavy amount of grumbling, Karkat got up and left the room, leaving only Nepeta, Feferi and Hisyei.  
"So that meeting went well," Feferi said. "Anyway, as for the main point of today's meeting, which I never ac-shelly got to, I am planning a raid on the Condesce's base, hopefully before the next tidal wave,"  
"She's releasing ano-fur one?" replied Nepeta, horrified.  
Feferi nodded. "Unfortunately. With what we can learn about her origins from either Equius' grandfather or Sollux if he was told about his grandfather, we may have a way to defeat her,"  
"Why don't we just swarm the place with angels and bombs?"  
At this question, Feferi's expression soured. "They don't want to risk harming her to much before questioning as she is a tyrian blood. I mean, I can't complain that much seeing as it's because of my tyrian blood that I was caught rather than killed, but the Condesce is different,"  
"Damn right she is. Well I'll gladly hunt her down fur you when the time comes. She's a nasty piece of work, and I hate seeing how much she's broken purr Aradia,"  
An awkward silence filled the room for a bit, before the assistant cleared his throat.  
"Um, so who even is the Condesce?"  
Feferi gave a dark chuckle, before glancing at Nepeta. "Shell you or shell I?"  
"You go, she's your grandma a-fur-erall. It's a long story though, you up fur it?"  
"It can't be more intense than the last load of stuff," he said, a nervous giggle leaving his mouth seemingly without his permission. "Sorry, that was probably rude…"  
"Not to worry, the drama is crazy here. So. Basically, it all began years ago when we were kidnapped from our homes…"

 **== > Be Fef after the explaining!**  
"… and then Aradia just dropped out of the sky here, and that's all you need to know!"  
"That… is a fucking crazy story, shit, I'm… well I'm sorry all that happened to you guys. That's awful," A look of despair had settled over the young man, and Feferi placed a hand on his shoulder.  
"It's not all bad! I mean, shore it is mostly bad but at least we met some wonderful people,"  
"And some purr-ty awful people,"  
"How would I have met you though?" Feferi pointed out, a small smile on her lips, which Nepeta replied to by pouting.

* * *

After further conversation with Nepeta and Hisyei about life, then about the actions needed before they could discuss further on the subject of defeating the Condesce, the meeting was disbanded as hardly anyone was there. Nepeta and Feferi agreed to split up and deal with the drama created from the meeting. Eridan and Ms Pyrope would be checked upon by Feferi, and Aradiabot and Equius were Nepeta's job, with a potential check in on Karkat by whomever finished their rounds first. For the first part of the journey they laughed together over the events of the day, before ultimately splitting as they tackled people in different areas of the building. Even though they were now together and safe, both still felt a small amount of apprehension at being separated once more, due to all the messing about in the retainment organisation. Their friendship was safe for now though, as well as all the friendships between the six who were rescued, and they had to remind themselves of it each day.  
Feferi's first job was an attempt to locate Terezi's mother, which was an easy enough task as she was sat in her room reading. Their conversation was short, though it was clear to Feferi that the older woman was doing her utmost best to attempt to convince the tyrian blood that she was fine. While Feferi would ordinarily have attempted to comfort people in distress, no matter how motherly she appeared, if she was anything like her daughter then when she wanted to be alone she meant it.  
Next up was Eridan. After running into a frustrated looking Karkat, she found out that he was on the roof. After the few minutes of travel to get there, she found him moping, which was predictable, though given that his kismesis/girlfriend had been murdered, it was pretty justified.  
"E-ridan!" Feferi sang softly as she walked up behind him. With the tall orange horns he was pretty difficult to miss, even when he was at the opposite side of the roof. "We'd better hope no helicopters land soon,"  
"I knoww wwhy you're here," he mumbled, keeping his eyes fixed on the distant horizon. "Guess Kar told you, huh?"  
"No, he didn't say any-fin, just that you were on the roof,"  
"Oh,"  
"So, you and Karkat," she teased, elbowing him lightly in the ribs. "Is there something going on or is there something going on?"  
"Fef, not that I wwouldn't appreciate gossipin' any other time, but… this is hopeless,"  
"What's hopeless?"  
"Ewerythin'!" he said, a near mad glint to his eyes. "Fef, you can't honestly beliewe that wwe can take on the Condesce an' wwin, do you?"  
There were a great number of things she was steeling herself to hear, but that was not on the list. Gobsmacked, she stammered as she attempted to find words to reply but found none.  
"Wwhat, you wweren't expectin' that?"  
"Well, no. I haddock been… had not been expecting that. I'm sorry you feel that way, Eridan,"  
"Princess, please, I…" Eridan was clearly fishing for something to say but words were failing him as much as they were failing Feferi. His eyes were puffy, with faint violet streaks down his cheeks from shed tears. "I don't wwant to lose you too,"  
"Is that what this is about?" Feferi replied, somewhat hesitant now in case he sped into one of his 'I lowe you' speeches. While he acted like his feelings for her had gone, they both knew full well that some less than platonic affection lingered.  
"I don't knoww. I'm sorry, this is stupid,"  
With a sigh, Feferi said, "We both know by now that if you want to say something, say it. Bottling it up does neither of us any good,"  
"Wwhat, you think that I'm still in lowe wwith you or somethin'?"  
"Isn't that what this is all about? Listen, I'm sorry that you lost Vriska, but you won't lose me, okay? And even if you did, joining forces with the Condesce isn't going to do us any good! I love this planet the way it is, or was even. I'm not going to let that bitch ruin it any further, and if I have to die for that, then… then so be it,"  
"Fef…"  
"Don't 'Fef' me, mister! I'm not a china doll, I can take care of myself. Who's the buff one in this moirailagence anyway… um, I mean… you know what I mean,"  
"I'we moved on, you knoww," he frowned. "I think wwe could hawe made a fuckin' awwesome couple, but you don't feel the same and that's that. I'm not gonna force you into somethin' you don't wwant. I low… I really care for you, Fef, and doin' that would be shit,"  
"Then what is this about?"  
"I already said! I think that our best chance of surwiwal is wwith the Condesce. You're completely head ower heels for Sol, anyone can see that, there'd be no point tryin' to come onto you,"  
"It's not. Eridan, that woman used us and conditioned us into these… monsters from day one! She took _children_ and forced them to murder! Forced _us_ to murder! I see their faces all the time, and I hate it, I hate _her_ forcing us to become this way, and that's why your suggestion just… please don't ever say that to me again, okay?"  
"But-"  
"Did you see Aradia? Have you seen what she has become? Did you know what Nepeta told me? When Nepeta told her that Sollux and I were together, Aradia wanted to kill me. Sweet, gentle Aradia who would not hurt a fly wanted to _kill_ me, and over something as stupid as a boy!"  
"I want us to surwiwe, Fef! Your ideals aren't gonna mean shit wwhen all that's left is us, the sea and the Condesce. Ewen if wwe don't go to her, at least let us run and hide somewwhere, please,"  
"Eridan, I…" Feferi sighed. "I love you to bits, okay? I want you to know that now before I do this,"  
The princess then grabbed the prince by his shoulders and shook him hard.  
"Stop being so selfish!"  
"Knock that off, Fef! I'm not being selfish, I'm doin' all this for you! I don't wwant you to die, I couldn't liwe wwith myself," Tears began to fall from his eyes again, as he hid his face behind his hands, embarrassed to be seen crying.  
Hands that previously rested on the boy's shoulders now slid down to hold him in a tight embrace.  
"Shoosh you. Things look bad right now, shore, they are bad. But they aren't going to stop being bad unless we do some-fin about it. Most life on this planet can't fight back, but we are… lucky, in a way, in that we are strong enough to take her on. We have teamwork and friends, something she'll never have!"  
"Fef, please let me do this for you," he mumbled.  
"All you're going to do is go to bed, mister," Feferi said, pressing a kiss into his hair, then took his hands in hers. "I'm not ready to become your moirail again, if ever, but I can't stand to see you being so ridiculous."  
Eridan did not reply, but eventually nodded.  
That night was spent with Feferi's body curled up close against Eridan's, just like they had slept when they were kids. It became more and more apparent how much Vriska had meant to the boy as the night drew on, and though both pretended as if they were sleeping, neither managed to drift off; Eridan due to the shock of losing someone so close and Feferi at seeing someone she cared about deeply being so distressed.  
There was no love lost between Feferi and Vriska. Feferi had disliked the girl from their first conversation; the cerulean blood was a bully, simple as, and she doubted that Vriska had ever even held the slightest bit of affection for Eridan.  
It was around four in the morning, and the only light in the room was the soft blue glow from the window to the ocean.  
Emotions were running wild in the room. Feferi knew full well that the young man she held in her arms was in an irrational and heartbroken… and prone to making mistakes he would later regret. Feferi was not in the best of states either. Though the information could have been incorrect or exaggerated, the fact still was that when Aradia had found Vriska she was covered in love bites, which she claimed had come from Sollux, who she also claimed was her kismesis. It was a lie, she told herself, a lie to wind up Aradia who everyone and their mother knew had a thing for Sollux… but… it could be true. They spent a lot of time together being on the same team, and escaped together…  
'Why did he not take me?' was a question the fushia blood asked herself often. Feferi had loved Sollux, and still did. Fiercely and wholeheartedly. But he had left without a trace and chosen the Handmaid, Tavros and Vriska, _Vriska_ to take instead.  
It hurt.  
It hurt so much and there was nothing Feferi could do, _nothing_ other than tell herself there was a reason and that he would come back for her… and… and instead Sollux had been kissing someone else. Not just anyone else but _Vriska Serket_.  
At this point Feferi could hold in her tears no more and hid her face in the cloth on Eridan's shoulder as she burst into loud angry tears, apologising for making things about her as she attempted to hold in her feelings once more. Eridan's actions only frustrated her more as he wiped away her tears and fussed about to make sure she was okay, that almost dopey look of concern on his face that he always had when he was worried about her.  
She was heartbroken, he was heartbroken and they were dumb teenagers that at the end of the day, did not know better.  
Feferi knew exactly what buttons to push, and she pushed them, kissing his forehead and the corner of his eye, carefully timing an 'accidental' brush to the base of his horns as she stroked his hair. This boy was desperate for company and she knew how to manipulate him. He looked up at her with puffy eyes and a longing look in his gaze, their bodies close enough to feel the others heartbeat, before he looked down at her lips and leant in, the tyrian blood's eyes closing in anticipation…  
There was a knock on the door to Feferi's room, freezing the two in place. Eridan's breath hitched in his throat and he clung to Feferi tightly until she asked him to let go, assuring him that she would not be gone forever.  
"Sorry if I… um, interrupted anything but… there has been a sighting of a pair of mutants in the Colorado region," said a harried looking soldier, noticing the figure still under the sheets in Feferi's bed. "We think they could be your missing friends, Mr Captor and Mr Nitram,"  
Feferi clasped a hand to her mouth, slowly sliding to the ground until she was in a seated position on the floor.  
"Are you sure?"  
The soldier pulled out a tablet from under her arm and showed her a photo. It was blurred but it was definitely Sollux.  
"We have been monitoring this village for a while. We suspect it is where the Condesce puts people to forget about them while still having them in her grasp, though we have not received any concrete evidence as of yet… ma'am, are you okay?"  
Feferi nodded, tears of joy beading from the corners of her eyes.  
"Thank you so much. Please tell the President I wish to talk to him tomorrow morning. No buts,"  
"I'll do my best,"  
"Goodnight, or morning, or whatever!"  
The soldier walked away, but Feferi did not move, immobilised by the sheer relief of knowing the person she loved was alive. A few metres away Eridan lay tangled in the sheets, frozen too from the pain of losing one he held dear, and now with the knowledge that the one piece of stability in his life was now leaving him once more.  
Love was an awful thing, he decided.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I remember thinking about writing vriska's opening scene three years ago jfc I'm old D: it was when I was paragliding, which I would heartily recommend if you ever get the money to do so. While I did try my best to make her flight make sense, at the end of the day humans can't really fly so obviously this must be taken with a pinch of salt!  
> Also the characters are really going to differ from canon a lot now, as I'm changing events to be more in line with how the characters have developed in this as opposed to canon, for example a prime example would be Feferi calming down Eridan.


	3. Reunions

"So," said Vriska as they walked through the shop and upstairs to the small house on the top. "How did you end up in this... quaint little village in the middle of nowhere playing shop?"  
"Uh, I've always lived here?" John replied, and Vriska had a feeling he was lying. Deciding not to pursue it, she shrugged.  
"And who's that girl? Your sister? Your girlfriend? You look pretty much identical so probably the first one,"  
"Neither. Just a friend. We've known each other since we were little kids though,"  
"Sure you weren't separated at birth?"  
"Pretty sure!" the boy laughed.  
"Same buck teeth and everything, just saying,"  
"Well next time I see my dad I'll have to give him a talking to on your behalf," he said teasingly. "You'd lose your shit over our other two friends, now there are a pair of twins separated at birth if I ever saw them,"  
"Got any pictures?" she asked while John rummaged about in Jade's clothes drawer for something warm to give to Vriska. "You've nabbed my curiosity,"  
"Only a screenshot of the four of us on video chat," he said, distracted, then shouted. "Jade?"  
A muffled voice shouted back from what Vriska presumed to be the bathroom, "Yeah?"  
"Where do you keep your trousers?"  
"Uh, hang on a sec!"  
A flushing sound filled the air, and Vriska could have sworn she heard whispering, before the sound of running water could be heard, and a somewhat harried looking Jade opened the door a crack, squeezed out then shut it quickly behind her.  
Upon noticing Vriska's strange glance, she said, "Toilet's blocked, don't go in there!"  
Jade then took John's place at the dresser and began pulling out clothes, throwing them over one arm, then turned to look at Vriska to assess sizes, and gasped, covering her mouth with a hand, "Oh! John, go mind the shop,"  
Evidently John decided it was a girl thing and left the room immediately without protesting.  
"I'm not judging you in the least, but going commando in a white summer dress of that length was not the best idea, especially in the rain," Jade whispered. "Um, we look about the same weight so these should fit you... I think. Obviously I can't hope to match the height..."  
Vriska looked down at her body and flushed as cerulean as was possible. She had forgotten she was wearing only the weird cocoon casing on her body, and the rain had made it cling.  
"Fuck, do you think John noticed?"  
"Nah, your hair covered the worst of it," Jade smiled, and handed Vriska a pile of clothes. "Here you go!"  
"Wait, I can't pay for this. You realise that, right?"  
"That's okay! Just doing a good turn. Though you're going to have to work it off,"  
"Oh, uh, well okay then. What do you need doing? Shelf stacking?" Vriska stammered, a little surprised by the girl's kindness, especially considering that Jade knew full well that Vriska had lied to her about her identity. "I've kind of got places to be though, so I can't stay for too long,"  
"Well that's too bad isn't it?" Jade said mischievously. "Have you got a week to spare? I just need some help picking up deliveries,"  
Vriska pondered for a moment. Ordinarily she would have left and never looked back, but she did need those clothes, and having a rest for a week with someone she somewhat knew did seem ideal.  
"Sure, I'll stay for a bit," she replied, still sounding somewhat reluctant.  
"Wonderful! Here you go," beamed Jade as she handed her the clothes. "So what did you say your real name was? Not going to lie, kinda shit that you didn't trust me, but I guess that's the world we live in now!"  
"It's Vriska," the cerulean blood said.  
Jade's eyes narrowed, as if remembering something and just as she was about to speed off in case Jade had seen one of the wanted posters, the bathroom door slammed open as Tavros and Sollux fell out.  
"Vriska?" cried Tavros as he leapt to his feet and grabbed the girl around the waist, hoisting her up into the air.  
"Aah! Put me down, oh my God, you big dope," she shrieked, grinning while doing so. Seeing her former teammates shocked her so much that her guard slipped, and the human projection she had been wearing fell, prompting a gasp from Jade.  
"Not that I'm glad you're okay, but how the fuck did you pull thith off, Therket?" asked a very confused Sollux. "You were very, very dea- what the hell are thothe?"  
"Oh these?" Vriska replied, waggling her wing stubs. "They came with becoming alive again, like all this armour,"  
"You weren't always this light, were you?" pondered a concerned looking Tavros as he put her down. "Have you been finding enough food?"  
"I'll tell you about it later," she shrugged, then remembered her state of clothing and inhaled sharply. "Okay, I'm going to get changed so everyone else get out,"  
As the boys left, Jade said, "Feel free to use the shower! The salve should have done its stuff by now so that shouldn't be an issue. Just don't spend too long in there, the bills don't pay themselves."  
Jade then left the room as Vriska slipped out of the cocoon remnants and into the shower. The first few minutes were spent wrestling with the controls to get it to an appropriate temperature, though she eventually gave up and settled upon a heat that was warm but still not hot enough to give her a truely clean feel; the amount of dirt washing off in the water said otherwise.  
Eventually she conceded defeat and left the stall. Vriska found the thought of wearing someone else's clean, but nonetheless used underwear unpleasant, but there was little else that could be done, and she decided that she would simply be glad that the majority of the clothes fit.  
After a few more minutes, the cerulean blood wandered down the stairs clad in a long skirt in combination with a floaty, light coloured chemise, and a cardigan over the top that was oversized on Jade, but somewhat the right size on Vriska. The tights Jade had given her were too small, so Vriska instead treaded into the room wearing a pair of socks adorned with little rabbits.  
The clothing style was so gentle and unlike Vriska that Sollux and Tavros burst into loud hoots of laughter upon seeing her, despite Jade's best efforts to shut them up.  
"You look lovely, Vriska. Ignore them," Jade assured the girl. Vriska looked to the side, as she dug her nails into her palms, clearly embarrassed.  
"Whatever,"  
Tavros and Jade stood beside one another at the kitchen counter, chopping vegetables and chatting about recipes. It turned out that they had known one another then they were younger, and that according to Jade, Tavros had once had a crush on the islander, which he denied hastily but judging by the blush he had on his cheeks it was likely true. Vriska felt no envy towards Jade, for Tavros clearly felt nothing other than platonic feelings for the human, and it was not hard to see why he had fancied her in his youth.  
Sollux, Vriska and John sat at the table pricing food for the shop.  
"How long have you been here?" Vriska asked Sollux before beginning to price a large stack of tinned tomatoes.  
"I got here about a week ago. Tv got here maybe another week before me. Leth walking when you're underground I gueth,"  
"How come you didn't shoot them on sight? Most people wouldn't exactly rate mutants high on the don't kill scale," Vriska said, aiming the question at John.  
"I found Tavros nearly dead one morning on the outskirts and took him in. It just didn't seem right to leave him I guess," laughed John nervously, clearly hiding something. "As for Sollux, Jade caught him rooting through the shop after melting the door open. She was going to turn him out into the cold but Tavros heard them talking and intervened,"  
"You, uhh, still owe me for that, by the way," Tavros called to Sollux.  
The smell of frying onions filled the room as the pair began cooking. Tavros then sat beside Vriska, holding a chopping board and a bowl full of salad items to slice up. He softly bumped his knee into hers, before picking up a tomato to dice.  
"Your, uh, your hair is, uhh, kinda..." he stammered.  
"My hair is what?" Vriska replied, a smirk on her face at how flustered the boy was, assuming he was going to make some general remark at how scruffy it had gotten.  
"It's, cute," he eventually said, to Vriska's surprise.  
"Oh, well um, I just braided it, it was getting in the way while tagging these," she replied, stammering a little too. "Thanks, I guess,"  
Sollux snorted at their exchange, and Vriska kicked him under the table.  
Before long, a dinner of onion soup was placed upon the table, accompanied by a salad and some cheese and ham toasties (minus the ham for Tavros). The Brit wolfed down her food, scalding her tongue in the process. As they ate, a strange being joined them at the table. It took the form of a young boy, perhaps eight, with orange tinged skin and an almost ethereal glow to him. Where his legs should have been was a long ghost-like tail, and from his back arched a pair of large wings. The feathers were not fully formed yet and as such a number of strange tube like structures protruded between the baby fluff.  
"I thought I'd seen it all!" Vriska declared. "What are you supposed to be?"  
The boy merely looked up at her, blinking owlishly at her, before looking down at his food again and continuing to eat.  
"This is Dave. He's... a sprite, I guess. But he doesn't really like talking to strangers. Do you, Dave?" said Jade, placing a hand on the boys shoulder. Dave made a soft chirruping noise at the girl, and she beamed at him.  
Vriska turned to Sollux, who in turn shrugged at her. Clearly this was something they would have to discuss in private later.  
"What's his favourite food? Worms?" Vriska snorted, promoting a hastily concealed smirk from Sollux across the table.  
Jade shot her a venomous look through, and hissed, "I appreciate the attempt at humour but don't you dare begin making jokes at Dave's expense, got that?"  
"Jeez, okay," Vriska replied, rolling her eyes. "Where'd you find him through?"  
"We're not exactly going to tell someone we've known for a few hours everything, are we?" John said, a glint of humour in his eyes, then nudged Vriska under the table with his foot. "I'm _sure_ Vriska didn't mean anything by it, did you?"  
"No," she replied with a pout. If she wanted to find out all the secrets of the household she would have to get on their good side.  
Suddenly, the three mutant's ears pricked up at a sound from the shop downstairs.  
"Don't want to alarm you, but are you expecting visitors?" Vriska whispered. Jade frowned and stood up, slowly making her way to a cupboard, where a rifle was hidden. The heavy silence as the girl made her way downstairs was uncomfortable for all.  
A gunshot echoed about the house suddenly, with Sollux muttering some remark about how it brought back memories. There was silence once more, then Jade marched back upstairs with a frown.  
"Just another refugee trying to break in. I feel bad for threatening them but there's no other way to get them to go!"  
For Vriska and Sollux it was a strange but interesting experience to see how it was for the shop keepers who were being looted; neither had really thought about it from their point of view before, but it was hardly as if they had had another choice when it came to getting food.  
Jade hid the rifle before rejoining them at the table. Dinner was awkward and silent after the attempted break in, but once all was eaten and the dishes washed up, John showed Vriska where she would be sleeping, alongside Sollux and Tavros in the basement. It looked surprisingly cosy, with throws and pillows scattered on the floor, and large brightly patterned cloth pinned to the walls and ceilings to give the room a tent like quality to it.  
"When we got here this was just an old abandoned room, spiders and bugs everywhere, old rotten food, dust, you name it. It was gross, but Jade and I transformed it into a sort of second living room, though obviously you weenies are staying here now," John rambled as he nudged aside a few boxes to get to a rickety sink in the corner. "Well we still keep some surplus supplies down here but no mouldy ones,"  
"Glad to hear it," Vriska snorted. "Is that water clean?"  
"Yeah, just go easy on the sink; it's old,"  
"By the way! Not that I'm still slightly bitter after like six years or whatever, buuuuuuuut why didn't you send me an email?"  
"What that? Gah, I can't even remember, I'm pretty certain I did send you a bunch, but you wrote down your email wrong and I couldn't figure out the proper one so I gave up,"  
"Huh? What, it was just mindfang underscore rules eighty three, at virtu dot com, how do you mess that up? I mean it's pretty juvenile but…"  
"Oh! _Mindfang_!" John said as he climbed the stairs. "I misheard you, I thought it was kindfang this whole time, that explains a lot, my bad,"  
"Oh," she said, self-conscious at how she had been blaming him the whole time for such a mistake.  
"Anyway, goodnight! Just ask Tavros if you need anything,"  
"Will do,"  
Then there were three.  
They sat close together in a circle, crosslegged with knees touching.  
"Where's the Handmaid?" Was the first thing asked by Vriska now they were alone. "Is she okay?"  
Tavros looked down at the floor, picking at the carpet nervously.  
"She, uhh, she's gone. I don't know, uhh, where she, went. I just woke up one day, and, um, she wasn't, there anymore?" Tavros stammered, clearly very distressed by the situation.  
"What do you mean she wasn't there?"  
"She, just was gone. I just left her for, um, for a bit to go and get some food, and then when, I got back there was just, uhh, just, a pile of clothes and bag, um, where she'd been,"  
Vriska glanced over at Sollux, who shrugged. Clearly the yellow blood had not been able to get anything more out of the boy, yet Tavros had no reason to lie, and even if he had he was not the kind to, especially on such an important matter.  
"What, uhh, what happened to you anyway?" Tavros asked, and Vriska noticed for the first time how tired and frail he looked: there were dark shadows under his eyes, and despite his best efforts to look happy and smile there was still a somewhat dead look in his gaze.  
"I, uh, don't really know," she replied. "Sollux and I were travelling to the meet up point, and he went for a bit and suddenly Ara… Arad…"  
As she began to remember the event, her heart was overcome with a sudden constricting sensation and without warning her body tensed up, her mouth feeling odd and dry, rendering it hard to speak.  
"She, she," Vriska attempted to talk again, but the words would not, _could_ not, come out. The mere thought of Aradia filled her body with pure unadulterated fear, and she clutched herself tightly. The mere thought of speaking the words aloud made her feel like something bad would happen again, that Aradia would reappear and torture her again.  
"Vrithka?" said Sollux, concerned.  
"I, she was there, and she took out a… she had knives and… and she stabbed…"  
The horrid sensation overcoming her chest spread to her stomach, and she hunched over, attempting to get a grasp on her breathing which had slowly but surely begun to spiral out of control.  
Someone was talking to her, but Vriska did not take anything in at first, hands clasped to the side of her head, until one word suddenly got through to her.  
"Vrithka!" Sollux said in an oddly calm voice. Vriska looked up at him briefly, before staring at the floor once more. "Hey, you don't need to think about that, okay? You're thafe here, we've got you, you're thafe,"  
Vriska shook her head, curling up tighter.  
"You're thafe, we're going to get through thith, okay?" he murmured. "Can you breathe?"  
The cerulean blood shook her head again.  
"We're going to focuth on your breathing. We're going to breathe in, and then out thlowly, okay? In… and out. Can you do that, Vrithka?"  
"I don't know, I'm sorry I don't know, I'm,"  
"Hey, thhooth, it's okay, it's okay. I've got you. Just follow what I do if you can, if not that'th okay. Breath in, one, two, and out, one two. Tv, can you get some water?"  
"S-sure,"  
Eventually with Sollux's help she managed to get her breathing under control, then before she knew it the tears came, and she was clutching the yellow blood tightly as she sobbed into his shoulder, his hands rubbing her back soothingly. The closeness reminded her of the reckless decision she had made to bait him into hate-smooching, and hid her face further so neither would notice the slight flush.  
"Ugh, fuck, this, this is s-so embarrassing, sorry," the girl stammered between hiccups. "I don't know, why this is happening, sorry,"  
"You don't need to be thorry, you have every right to feel like thith, okay?"  
"Okay," Vriska sniffed, then took a sip from the glass that Tavros had left. "Thank you,"  
"Don't worry about it, it's the least, uhh, that I could do," replied Tavros, feeling guilty at how little he had helped. "I'm sorry, I just, I don't, uhh, know what to do,"  
"Vr, I'm gonna go for a thec, are you okay with that?" asked Sollux, and Vriska could feel his chest rumble against hers. The thought of him going brought back thoughts of what had happened the last time he left her, and her breathing began to lose control again. "Hey, hey, don't be thcared. Tv is even buffer than me, and he'll thtill be here, okay?"  
That seemed to placate the girl, and she got up and sat beside Tavros, who after asking picked her up and clutched her close.  
After Sollux left the room, Tavros kissed Vriska on the forehead and rested his head atop of hers.  
"I wonder where Sollux learned to do that," she whispered. "He doesn't seem like someone who would know that stuff,"  
Tavros shrugged, "I don't know. He was really good when, uhh, when I… I first heard the news about your… you know."  
Oh. Of course, that would be why Tavros looked so tired and worn out, Vriska realised, and subconsciously held him tighter.  
"Were you bad?"  
"Yeah… I mean, uhh, I've not really been, eating or sleeping much, you know, uhh, since Sollux got back,"  
Something about the comment angered Vriska and she sat back a little so she could look at his face. Originally she planned to shout at him for being so stupid, but his expression was so sad and kind that she instead muttered something about him being silly, then felt her cheeks heat up when he smiled at her comment.  
"Ah, you're really cute when, uhh, when you get all blushy," he snorted, kissing her on the head again.  
"I am _not_! I'm not cute at all, I have _fangs_! See?" she retorted, blushing even more as she attempted to look imposing, which inevitably made Tavros grin even more. She turned away from him. "I'm not cute,"  
"Yeah, you are! You are scary and badass, but, uhh, you are also pretty damn cute. Look at those lil dimples," he said, beaming the whole while, after a few seconds, she realised that his laughter sounded odd, and looked up to see him trying quickly to hide his tears. "Sorry I'm, it's just, I really missed you, uh, a whole lot, sorry,"  
"You don't need to be sorry!" she said, taking one of his hands in hers. When realised how sappy her actions were coming across, and quickly added, "Of course, you did, I mean, who wouldn't miss me, right?"  
Tavros snorted at the comment, but kept his face firmly hidden.  
"Hey," she said, softer than the last comments. "We're both really fucked up, aren't we?"  
"Yeah," he sniffed. "We have each other now though, uhh, at least, I hope so anyway. Sorry that was probably, uhh, a bit presumptuous, um,"  
Vriska said nothing, but kissed him on the head with a small smile, then looked up at him. Butterflies began to rampage through her stomach as he turned to face her.  
"You're real, right?" he whispered, voice low. "I'm not just hallucinating you again, please, don't let that be what, what's happening,"  
"Oh," she said voice breaking, unable to properly understand how distraught her death had made him. "You wish you could get rid of me that easily. I'm as real as they come,"  
"Why?"  
Without further thought she leant up and kissed him on the mouth, noticing immediately how he clung to her, his kisses desperate and hungry as he ran his hands from her shoulders down to sit on her waist, as if reassuring herself that she was really there. Vriska decided to take action against his fear, and hooked a finger under the collar of his t-shirt to move it aside, exposing the soft skin of his neck and gently gave him a love bite.  
"There, a hallucination couldn't give you that, could it?" she grinned, then pecked little kisses up his neck and across his cheek and nose. "I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere,"  
They kissed again, this time softer, more relaxed as they basked in eachother's company.  
That night they slept beside the other, though due to Tavros' oversized horns he could only sleep on his back, and as such Vriska settled for resting her head upon his chest, praying to any god that would have her that her horns did not accidentally poke him in the night. For the first time in almost a week, Tavros slept soundly; whenever he awoke fresh from a nightmare he merely had to look down and see that the young woman he had lost was now asleep in his arms, safe. Vriska on the other hand was simply glad to have a warm place to sleep.  
The pair were so wrapped up in one another that they failed to notice that Sollux had not come back, though he returned a few minutes after the pair fell asleep, content that they had made up.

* * *

 **== > D'aww! Now be Feferi! As if there isn't enough angst in this chapter :')**  
Error 404, cannot be Feferi as she is too busy, along with the other free mutants.  
 **== > Oh okay. Ummmmmm well then, I guess be Jade?**  
You are now Jade Harley, and you do not know what to make of the situation.  
In all honesty, Jade did not know what to make of all these new people in her house. It was the morning after she had found the mutant girl, and Jade was currently at the kitchen table, wordlessly spooning cereal into her mouth, grimacing a little at the odd taste of the milk that they had found in one of the back rooms. While she had drunk it in her childhood, during her time on the island it had been deemed 'unnecessary' and as such she had gone without it. There had been talks of buying a sheep or goat for milk, but the plans fell through.  
"Thup," said the tall mutant as he entered the room. Sollux.  
"Hey," Jade smiled back. "Help yourself to some breakfast,"  
"Don't mind if I do,"  
While Sollux went about preparing something to eat, Jade asked, "The other two still in bed?"  
"Yeah, figure they detherve a lie in, you know?"  
"So, um, not to _pry_ or anything, but is that Vriska? The one that died?"  
Sollux frowned, clearly confused by the situation as well.  
"Yeah, pretty thure it'th her. Tried to athk her about what happened latht night, but the went into a full blown panic attack. Never theen her tho fucked up before, not even after… well," He dropped Jade a lazy wink. "Can't tell you all our secrets can we?"  
"Guess not!" she smiled. "Though… how can you be sure it's her? I mean, if she's a shapeshifter or whatever, like, that could be anyone?"  
Shrugging, the mutant replied, "I gueth, never thought of that before. I'll have to give her a pop quiz when the waketh up properly,"  
"Hopefully it is her! I need someone to help me with moving some stuff, and you and Tavros won't be any use looking like that, in the nicest possible way of course,"  
"Well actually, her powerth work by manipulating the brainth of thothe around her, tho in theory all three of uth could go out looking like people,"  
"Whoa, really?"  
"Yep, dunno how thtrong the ith though, tho maybe not,"  
"Ahh dang, that would be so helpful,"  
"Worth a try,"  
"You wish, Captor!" snorted Vriska, stood in the doorway. "As if I'm going to use up all my energy on a loser like you."  
After breakfast, Vriska and Jade walked through the village, pulling an empty cart behind them, with their bodies hidden in oversized rain ponchos and a large umbrella. The cerulean blood was surprised at how many people were out and about despite the acid rain. Most were farming, with some of the stronger men and women working on building or patching up houses.  
Scattered amongst the older, two storied houses were modest, single floored buildings, made from a mismatch of wood and rubble. Occasionally a child would peer at the pair through holes in the wall, clearly amused by the cyan plastic of the ponchos. Jade would stick her tongue out at them, with Vriska giving them the scariest looks she could muster, sending them shrieking away.  
"What's with this place? Is this normal in America?" asked Vriska. "Or is this just a post apocalypse thing?"  
"Oh, I don't know," Jade replied. "I spent most of my life with only my grandpa for company, so this could be normal or this could be really weird,"  
"Well let me be the one to break this to you," Vriska lowered her voice and leant in, mockingly whispering, "This is heeeeeeeella fucked up,"  
Jade shot her a quick look, "Not here,"  
Vriska knew an evasive look when she saw one, and opted to drop it if it meant a good story later. Coming to think of it, there were too many random citizens with big guns strapped to their back for this to be a normal village.  
They soon reached a farmhouse, with stacks and stacks of tinned and jarred vegetables, as well as a hefty pile of packaged dried meats. Jade instructed Vriska to pack them into the cart, before popping inside the building to talk to the people inside. It was boring, manual labour, but Vriska did it with only minimal complaint.  
The journey back was less pleasant. Pulling the heavy, laden cart downhill without being run over was more of a challenge than Vriska was expecting, especially when the wheels would nip at her wings, prompting her to leap about in pain at seemingly nothing. Even worse was the fact that Jade expected her to make the trip another two times. After multiple complaints, the girl reminded Vriska that she had to make the trip alone normally, and lightly ribbed the mutant for being a weak baby. No more complaints were made.  
Once all the food was brought back, the boys went about packing it onto the shelves and stock rooms, and Vriska sat on the counter, practicing her mental projections on Tavros and Sollux. The plan was to see how long she could keep the pair of them looking human, but ultimately settled upon just practicing on Sollux after he made the good point that Tavros' horns would get caught on everything if he could not see them. Jade kept an eye on Vriska the whole while, still not entirely trusting her.  
The next few days passed in a similar matter, with Vriska managing to keep herself and Sollux looking human for longer periods of time every time she attempted it. On the fourth day, after consulting Sollux in fine detail on what he looked like before the mutation (ginger hair so dark that was almost brown, pale skin and a copious number of freckles all over) Jade, Vriska and Sollux set off to the farm with the cart. Though she was not walking anymore, instead sitting where the food would be going, the mental strain of keeping Sollux and herself looking human got taxing just before they reached the farm, and after the cart was loaded the mutants sneaked off into the nearby forested area to have a rest, before they continued back.  
"So," said John that night at dinner. "What was the Retainment Organisation really like?"  
Tavros gave him a startled look, and Jade almost called off the questions, but found herself curious too, "Um. it was… uh, it was awful,"  
"How do you know we spent any time there at all?" Vriska interjected.  
"Because they said they were there, but didn't really delve into it," shrugged John. "I get if you don't want to talk about it though,"  
"Actually, you know what? I'll tell you all about it if you tell us what's up with this village," Vriska said. "It's safe to talk here, right?"  
"Yeah. Dave is very good at finding bugs, of both kinds," snorted John. "But that's fair enough,"  
"I guess you're all on the run from the Condesce, aren't you?" Upon taking in the horrified looks of the three mutants, Jade grinned, "Well you came to the wrong place. Or the right place? This is where she puts people she wants to forget but can't kill,"  
"We fucked up," said Sollux. "But I guess this is the last place she'd look. How do you know about her?"  
"We're both mutants too, apparently," John said. "But I was never able to do anything with these supposed powers,"  
"I did though. Four of us were taken in, and only me and John got out,"  
"Then, uhh, who's Dave? Assuming he's, from the Retainment Organisation, that is,"  
"Dave was one of the four of us," Jade replied, her expression becoming dark. "But something happened and he got shot, and later died. Then they combined him with this alien thing and… we got this Dave. One of the scientists smuggled him out when they gave us the supplies. I don't know what's going on inside his brain though. He seems affectionate enough, but he doesn't speak and doesn't seem to have any prior knowledge of us. He imprinted, but that's it really,"  
The child at the table did not recognise that they were talking about him, and continued to eat, ignoring the speech around him.  
"And one of the people on the inside got John and I sent away. I think the Condesce was going to kill us, so while he was a creep I'm grateful. One of our friends is still in there though, and it eats me up,"  
"Hey, you had a chance to get out and you took it, that doethn't make you a bad perthon," said Sollux. "I had to leave my girlfriend, There wath no time to take her with uth. It hurtth, but I know the would be angrier if I had a chance and didn't take it becauthe of her. At leatht that'th what I tell mythelf,"  
At this, Jade noticed Vriska shifting her hands about under the table, grazing her fingers against Tavros'. She was clearly thankful that he was safely with her. The cerulean blood could not begin to imagine the guilt Sollux was feeling, especially after they kissed, and felt newfound guilt at her actions.  
"Don't worry, there's no way anything bad has happened to her. She could fight off, like, ten grizzly bears and come out victorious without a scratch," Vriska smiled, hoping he would feel a little better. Moirailigance was strange, and she was still getting the hang of it. Sollux sent a small smirk back at her, clearly thankful for her comment.  
"That'th true. The'th going to beat the thit out of me next time we thee each other,"  
"Can't deny that," Tavros laughed. "But yeah, we were kidnapped when we, uhh, were just kids. And before we even got into it properly, she set all of us, um, against eachother. And we, we couldn't even, uhh, get into the-"  
Suddenly, Tavros stopped talking, a deep frown marring his face.  
"You okay, Tavros?" Jade asked, before a tapping filled the air.  
"Dude, if you had a song in your head all you had to do was say," Vriska sneered, assuming the tapping of his feet to be due to a particularly catchy earworm.  
"No, but, uhh, that isn't, um, me," he stammered, face pale.  
At this, the others at the table turned worried, aside from Davesprite.  
It d. id not take long for Jade to declare, "That's morse code, i think!"  
"Do you know it?" asked Sollux.  
"Yeah!" Jade, clearly excited to use the skill, leaped to her feet and rushed about to find a pencil and paper. "Okay, I may be a bit rusty but I'll try my best,"  
Sticking her tongue out her mouth, she then began to write down the pattern of taps, complaining a bit at how they were not proper dashes and dots. When she had lived on the island, her grandfather had taught it to her, and they would often send each other silly messages via it when they were on opposite sides of the island. Using the skill again gave her an odd feeling of nostalgia.  
After the same tapping was played through five times, Jade had written a short sentence.  
"Have you got it yet?" said Vriska, then with horror, she found her own arm shakily begin to tap out the same rhythm on the table upon Tavros' stopping.  
At her expression, John, Jade and Sollux found themselves laughing hysterically, despite Vriska's shrieks of 'stop laughing!' and 'it's not funny'.  
"Sorry, but, yeah, I think I've got it. It says this," Jade cleared out her throat, unable to keep the smirk off her face. "Help coming hide til fight done fef. Do you know what fef is supposed to mean?"  
"Fef is thhort for Feferi, my girlfriendth name," mumbled Sollux, eyes wide behind his glasses. "But, the'th still with the Condethce, thith hath to be a trap,"  
"Feferi? Surely you don't mean the Feferi Peixes?" John piped in.  
"He sure does," Vriska grinned impishly. Her arm had since stopped tapping, thus she was back to her usual self. "What do we do then? Just hide it out?"  
"Who knows. I mean, uhh, how do we even know it's her?"  
"Thurely only Equiuth could work the roboticth to get them to do thomething like thith?"  
"Yeah, he made the arm hit me in the face once as a 'test'," Vriska pouted. Of course, Aradia had managed to find her based off the robotic arm, and while Vriska was not to know that, it did occur to her that it could be Aradiabot back again, though quickly suppressed such thoughts.  
As the four pondered what to do, the sound of distant gunfire filled the air, and before long screaming joined it.  
"Shit, she didn't give us much warning did she?" Jade shrieked. "Get to the basement!"  
They quickly scrambled to pick up their most important belongings before running down the stairs and filing into the basement, with Jade being sure to hide the trapdoor under a thick rug before setting it shut above her, then barring it shut.  
"I'm guething there are a bunch of undercover tholdiers here then?" whispered Sollux. "Dunno who I'm gonna bet on,"  
"I doubt Feferi herself came. If she really has somehow gathered an army then they'll hardly let her head it. Even the hardiest people go googoo eyed over her in a matter of minutes," muttered Vriska to Sollux.  
"Fucking fight me, Therket," he replied, though winked to let her know he had not taken it badly.  
The gunfire got closer with every minute, but Jade assured them multiple times that there no one would see the trapdoor, much less get through it. It seemed as if these assurances were more for her sake than anyone else's though. Davesprite was curled up in her lap, making gentle cooing noises as Jade ran her fingers over his hair and seemed to be completely oblivious to the sound of the guns.  
Every second took an eternity, and the air was so tense and heavy that none of them could move, even if they had wanted to, though all had their hands clutching a weapon tightly, aside from Sollux, who had his fingers on his glasses, gaze locked onto the door in case someone broke in. While none of them were wanting to kill, they were all prepared to. After another ten minutes, the amount of fighting seemed to lessen and while they were hardly relaxed, they found themselves beginning to loosen up a little.  
The lights suddenly went out, and John assured everyone that it happened fairly often, citing how the generator was bad and that it had probably been caught in the crossfire. He softly got up and felt his way over to where the sink was, grabbing the torch that was kept on top of the mirror, then found his way back beside Jade, still clutching the hammer tightly despite his reassurances and smiles.  
It sounded almost as if the fighting was happening just down the road, and they huddled closer.  
Suddenly, the front door was being knocked down, and Tavros had to bite back a whimper. Before long, the wood broke in and the sound of footsteps filled the air above them, with objects and food being knocked gratuitously to the floor all over. The torch went off.  
First they heard the soldiers storm upstairs, but after a matter of seconds it was cleared, and they redoubled their efforts in the shop area.  
Someone stepped into the storeroom with the entrance to the basement in. The rug was moved. The butt of a gun was smacked into the trapdoor over and over until small splinters of light began to fill the basement.  
Crash!  
The trap door caved in and the Condesce's soldier peered into the room, before being knocked back by one of Sollux's optic blasts, though another soon took their place, before a dozen stood before them, holding loaded guns at their heads.  
"Leave us alone! Please!" Vriska cried. "Please we've done nothing wrong!"  
One soldier brought out a small tablet, and another brought out a light, fixing it to the wall so that they were all visible.  
"They aren't the one's they're looking for," one said to another. "Though how they got into the basement I have no idea,"  
"Isn't one of the missing mutants some kind of mind fucker though?" another said, quickly dispelling the sudden hope the mutants felt in their chest at escaping unharmed thanks to Vriska's talent. There was no way the cerulean blood would be able to mentally control all of them at once anyway, even if they were not wearing the anti-mindcontrol visors. It would allow the different appearances to show but that was the extent of the control she had over them.  
"It's one of the girl's, isn't it?" said one soldier, and raised his gun. "We're gonna have to kill 'em all anyway, so may as well give it a go-"  
"No! The Condesce wants the shapeshifter alive," the leader of the soldiers said, and pulled out another kind of gun, before shooting Vriska square in the chest with it. Electricity filled the air as Vriska arched her back in pain, then passed out, the five regaining their true forms. "Got 'em. Grab that one and shoot the rest,"  
As the soldiers raised their guns, a flash suddenly filled the air, briefly blinding all, before the light cleared and a tall figure floated in the middle of the room.  
Davesprite raised his hands, and a pulse of energy shot out from them, sending the soldiers sprawling to the floor. Dead or unconscious, no one cared.  
"Sup," the sprite said as he turned to face them. He had changed, grown again. No longer was he a child, he was now the same age as when Jade had last seen him. "Harley, Egbert, whatever the fuck you guys are,"  
"Dave!"  
John and Jade leapt to their feet and quickly enveloped Davesprite in a tight group hug, laughing joyously.  
"Not that I want to break up the reunion, but quiet down," hissed Sollux. "Our door is butht in and there'th thtill gunfire out there!"  
They sat down, solemn, but luck was on their side, as no other soldiers came. After an hour, Vriska came to, aching all over and grumbling nonstop.  
Another hour passed, before the sound of a helicopter filled the air, and footsteps echoed into the basement once more, though unlike the past set these were more hesitant and were not accompanied by gunfire.  
"Hello?" shouted a voice. "We're soldiers of the US army, here on the behalf of Feferi Peixes,"  
Jade poked her head out of the trapdoor, rifle aimed at his head.  
"Prove it!" she yelled back.  
"She's looking for some mutants. Sollux Captor, and Tavros Nitram? And she said that if we had to prove it, to ask for…" the soldier clearly looked fed up. "Had to ask for her honey bee. Ring any bells?"  
" _Honey bee_?" shrieked a voice behind Jade, clearly Vriska, followed by loud guffaws of laughter.  
"That'th thomeone thent by Ff alright," grumbled Sollux, appearing beside Jade. "They'd have killed uth by now if they weren't anyway,"  
The five of them climbed out of the basement and into the hallway of the shop with the exception of Davesprite who floated along behind Jade and John, clearly as confused by his new body as everyone else. Outside was a helicopter presumably the one that had just landed.  
The rain had stopped, a fact which only Jade and John noticed, and neither could think of a time where it had not been raining for a while. They filed outside.  
"Sollux!" cried an elated voice, before a mutant appeared from inside the helicopter, clad in the same practical outfit as the soldiers that accompanied her, with the sleeves rolled up so her muscled forearms were on show. Her horns were tall, sharp and arched softly to the side. Jade wondered if all the mutants had their own unique horns.  
"Hey," he whispered as he clutched her tightly. "I'm thorry, Ff. I'm tho thorry,"  
Jade moved away from the pair, and the others followed; clearly they needed some space, and it was a good a time as any to get on the helicopter.  
Inside was another mutant, even taller than Feferi, but thinner in frame, with a kind but fierce face, and thick triangular horns.  
"You're really alive, I can't believe it!" the girl said, clearly shocked at Vriska's appearance, then noticed the two humans. "Oh, sorry, I should introduce myself! I'm Nepeta,"  
Nepeta held out a hand to Jade, who took it after a small hesitation at the long claws tipping each finger.  
"Jade,"  
"Davesprite,"  
"Hey, I'm John. Anymore of you mutants in here that we should know about?" said John, grinning so that the olive blood would know he was teasing.  
"Hmm, not on this plane, but there are a bunch more where we're going, if that's okay with you two!"  
"We can't stay here, can we?" replied Jade, looking at the shop. While the house had been cosy, she had to admit that she would not miss the place. "Where are we going?"  
"A-fur-ter we pick up the lovebirds, we're going to the US army base. Did Vriska and Tavros tell you where we were from?"  
"Yeah, almost. Same place as us," John said.  
"Oh! You too huh? Well Fef talked the purr-resident into letting her stay under his protection, and somehow a whole bunch of us ended up there. We're trying to find a way to kill the Condesce. It won't undo the damage but at least we'll be in control of the earth again,"  
"Sure, I'm up for that! John? Dave?"  
"I'll just stick around with you for a bit," Davesprite shrugged.  
"I don't imagine I'll be much help but sure thing,"  
"I mean, you helped Sollux and Tavros, so I imagine Feferi will offer you some protection from the seawitch," Upon Vriska clearing her throat, Nepeta added, "And for helping Vriska too, of course!"  
Feferi and Sollux got on the plane after a few more minutes of talking, and it was clear that both had been crying. Neither said anything, but Feferi gave them a big smile as she got on, hugging Tavros, then sat beside Sollux, holding his hand.  
"It's good to see you're still alive Vriska, you'll have to let us know how you did it,"  
"You too. As soon as I figure out how this happened, I will," Vriska promised. It was clear to Jade that Feferi and Nepeta were wary of Vriska, though she had no idea why. Clearly the girl must have done something bad, or perhaps it was simply because she had seemingly risen from the dead. Whatever reason, Jade vowed to find out, for John and Dave's sake's, as well as her own.  
The helicopter took off, and before long they were over the sea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I don't really want to go into details, I was living in a house with someone who made me genuinely fear for my life. And it's probably inappropriate but I tried to capture how the aftermath of such a situation feels the best I could, as I feel like using it as an aid in writing kind of helps, making it useful and gives me control over it, as stupid as it sounds. I tried to put the feelings I had into Vriska and Aradia, as the fear and the anger respectively, idk… sorry this is silly :s


	4. Dutch Courage

**== > Heck, be Vriska again, she's the main character so why not?**  
You are now Vriska Serket, and you remain hesitant about your being-taken-away by Feferi Peixes and Nepeta Leijon.  
Tyrian fog.  
It was but a distant memory now, but Vriska still had a vague memory of the fog released when the mutants fought each other in the dome, and wondered if there was a chance that a similar such method was being used to control Feferi and Nepeta. Honestly, it was far to convenient that they had escaped and found a powerful figure to manipulate. It was a trap, it had to be.  
Regardless of her suspicion, neither of the two girls spoke to her, so Vriska could neither confirm nor deny whether they were under the Condesce's control. Instead the cerulean blood sat beside Tavros, wordlessly watching the ocean fly past through the small windows. She had decided that her near death experience had made her weaker in some way, as she quite contently rested her head on his offered shoulder, knowing full well that a few years ago she would have scoffed at the idea. Tavros was an island of kindness in a sea of rather deserved hostility, thus it would be rather silly to reject his small displays of affection, and regardless of that, that hallucination of him appearing to comfort her as she lay dying had stuck with her.  
Though she would not say she was in love with him, Vriska was more than aware of the fact that she held a deep rooted affection for him. The boy made her feel... an emotion she could not quite describe, other than that it felt right.  
Before long the combined warmth from the sun and Tavros' shoulder got to her, and she fell asleep, only to be jolted awake by the helicopter landing, her horns clacking loudly into Tavros' as she jumped.  
"Ow," she winced, then looked around. "Oh fucks sake, I didn't mean to fall asleep."  
"You, uhh, looked like you needed it, so I didn't wanna wake you," said Tavros, who then yawned. "Then I, I fell asleep too."  
Vriska snorted, "You're a mess, Nitram,"  
"A hot mess?"  
"Hmm, I'll give you that one," she murmured with a smirk, then giggled at the flush that spread across his cheeks.  
"Everyone off!" announced Feferi, walking back from where she was chatting to the pilots. "I need to go have a meeting now, so I'll be back in a few hours. Nepeta will take you to where you need to go, okay?"  
The seadweller promptly left with the remaining soldiers.  
"Okay, follow me!" Nepeta hopped out, followed by team eight, Jade, John and Davesprite. "We are guests here, so purr-lease remember to be respectful and all that, 'kay?"  
It was almost surreal hearing Nepeta's soft Scottish accent again, as the last thing Vriska had heard about her was that she and Equius had been sent off somewhere for being useless. The olive blood had never looked so good, though, and Vriska decided that the Condesce had clearly made a mistake in letting her go.  
"Hey, cat girl!" Vriska called. "Who else is here?"  
"Hm? Oh it was you snoring loudly while I said what happened! Well, I guess I could tell you again. We have Fur-feri and I, obviously, and we also have Eridan, Karkat, Equius... uh, oh! There's someone who will be su-purr purr-leased to see you! When we sent out that signal to the robotic limbs we didn't expect yours to respond at all, and only me and Fur-feri knew it did anything. Aah! She's going to be so happy!"  
Vriska frowned, unable to think of anyone who would be genuinely happy to see her beside Tavros and perhaps Eridan... but despite that felt relieved at the knowledge that Aradiabot was not with the rescued mutants.  
With that thought, Nepeta seemed to walk even faster, until they finally arrived at a door, which the olive blood peered into then beckoned Vriska over.  
"Hey! You'll never guess who we found alive and well!"  
Terezi's mother walked through the door, and Vriska felt an odd constricting emotion in her chest, but before she could decide what it was she was enveloped in a tight hug.  
"Oh God, look at you," the woman sniffed, and Vriska stiffened, preparing herself for a comment asking her what had happened. Instead she was met with a big grin. "How you've grown! You look so beautiful, I can't believe you're okay!"  
Tears quickly welled up in Vriska's eyes, for she had not expected Su to say something so kind when the cerulean blood looked so alien.  
"Don't tell me you're the one who taught Terezi that freaky sniffing thing?"  
"Hmm, maybe!"  
"Well it explains a lot! My mum just thought you were weird when you took photos of me and Terezi. Though having said that you did have one of those fancy phones for blind people, so,"  
"I'm not really that surprised by that," Ms Pyrope giggled. "Anyway, my flower, you must tell me what you've been up to the past few years. I've heard a fair amount from Tezi, but... I just need to hear it from your perspective."  
Vriska's face fell at the poorly hidden sadness on Su's face, but nonetheless began to talk. They sat in the corridor for several hours, the older woman enraptured by the girl's story, frowning heavily the whole time, before expressing with deep sorrow how sorry she was that she had not been able to rescue them.  
"You have done some truly inexcusable things, Vriska, and you've clearly paid the price for it. But you have also been severely damaged by what the Condesce has done to you. No child should have to kill. I tried my utter best to expose the Retainment Organisation. I lost everything, my career, my reputation, my house," Su shook her head. "And of course I lost Terezi and you, but no matter what I did it was always turned around to be against me. Then one day I was arrested and taken deep underground, where I met with a woman who told me she was from the US government, and that they had been watching me. They believed me about the mental connection as well. We got a little further working together, but before we knew it, the flood happened. Thank God Tezi warned us a few months in advance, or we wouldn't be where we are now,"  
"Yeah, good for her," said Vriska, not knowing what to think of her best friend growing up having saved thousands of lives.  
"By the way, that young man you're dating... Eridan, is it?"  
"Eridan?"  
"Oh darn, got the name wrong. The one with the purple bit in his hair?"  
"Oh, no we're not dating?"  
"Well he seems to think you are, my lovely,"  
"Crap! I forgot to break up with him!" Vriska swore, her eyes growing wide.  
At this, Ms Pyrope began to laugh. "Oh good! He seems like a nice enough young man, but I don't think you'd be very good for each other."  
"I knew I forgot something, shit. I mean, I have got a... well someone I'm involved with, but he's not Eridan,"  
"Ah! Do tell!" Su beamed, acting for all intents and purposes like an aunt who wanted to know all the gossip she had missed out on of her niece.  
"Um, he's the one I walked in next to, with the wide horns," Vriska replied, a hint of an embarrassed flush spreading over her cheeks.  
"Well, I'll have to interrogate him," winked Su, With Vriska blanching, knowing that the older woman's interrogations were nothing to be taken lightly.  
"He... he's a good guy, you don't need to worry about me," the cerulean blood said.  
"Well from what you told me he sounds it! Anyway I shouldn't keep you any longer, sweetie, I'm sure the others are dying to see how you are!"  
"I wouldn't go that far,"  
"At the least you need to break up with that poor young man," the woman winked again before embracing Vriska once more, then turning to walk away down one of the corridors. Vriska could hardly blame her; being stuck around a bunch of teenagers all day must get pretty tiring.  
With a guttural creak, the door opened and the conversation in the room stopped.  
"At ease, soldiers. No need to hush as I enter," Vriska smirked, before sitting in the far corner beside a window. No one bothered her, and she decided that she was more than happy to continue playing the villainous role. After all, it was, despite everyone's best efforts, what most of the crowd still saw her as. The conversation eventually picked up again, but it was whispered and awkward, and due to the better hearing her kind had been blessed with, she soon picked up the general vibes of how the others felt.  
Distrust, confusion, fear. Even Eridan was not coming up to pester her as he would once have done.  
Fed up of the whispers, Vriska leapt to her feet and faced the small crowd.  
"So! You losers all just want to know how I did it, huh?"  
At that point, Feferi walked in with a curious expression on her face, and asked, "Ooh, are you giving a speech, Vriska?"  
"Yes, going to address all the questions you doubtless have. I'm Vriska. The same Vriska. And I came back to life after... after..." The memories of her death began to leach their way into her mind again, blocking all ability to talk. Her breaths grew shallow from fear as she whimpered, "No, fuck, not now,"  
"Vriska has been through a lot, leave her," said a voice from beside her, Tavros'.  
"She deserved it," Another voice spoke, and at this Vriska's entire body froze. That voice... could it be? She dared not look up. "She should have stayed dead,"  
Vriska was then vaguely aware of shouting and arguing, but was too focused on not passing out or vomiting or God forbid both that she paid minimal attention.  
The bronze-blooded mutant then did something he never thought he would do - defend Vriska. Life is weird.  
"You did this?" roared Tavros, surprising everyone, not to mention himself.  
"Yes, and I'm proud to admit it. Don't you remember all that she did to you? All that she did to me?" The robot's voice broke. "I didn't get reincarnated like she did, I just became trapped in this fucking tin can!"  
"Of course I know what she did! She paralysed me, I was in pain for weeks. She mocked me, belittled me... And, and she killed you-"  
"Are you siding with the girl who made your life a misery?" Aradia shrieked. Some of the other assembled mutants began murmuring amongst themselves, seeming as if they were going to side with Aradia. Everyone had their stories of how Vriska had screwed them over in some way. In the corner, John, Jade and Davesprite sat huddled together, throwing glances at the door, wondering when the robot would stop blocking it.  
"Not to gloss ower all the shit she did, but Wriska wwas thirteen wwhen all this happened. I mean, she's still a bitch but this happened wwhen wwe wwere kids. An' after all that happened in the village..."  
"So what, you're arguing she didn't know better?"  
"No a' course not, I'm just fuckin' pointin' out that the situation is different, is all," Eridan snarled, before sighing and falling silent once more.  
"Do you even know why Vriska killed you?" said Tavros.  
"Oh, I'm sure she came up with a great reason afterwards, no?"  
"She... she did it for me. I didn't want it, I'm, uhh, it's all my fault really. But the Condesce told her if she killed you, then I'd be able to walk again, and she'd get her arm back. It was my fault. She visited me every day after I lost my legs, and every time I'd beg her for help,"  
"She was the reason you lost the ability to walk in the first place!"  
"And she was the reason I could walk again both times. I'm not saying she was a good person, but she's changed. Almost five years have passed since what happened. We're almost adults now," he paused to glance at Vriska, and saw that she was still hunched over and shaking from fear. "I've forgiven her."  
"Well I haven't," Aradiabot said, and Tavros's felt that Vriska's grip on his arm had tightened considerably.  
"Don't take another step towards her,"  
"She's a bad person, she deserves this,"  
"Aradia, please, this isn't you!" cried Tavros.  
"This is me, this is what I've become thanks to her!"  
"Thtop," said Sollux, and Aradia indeed stopped, a confused look on her face. He said in his usual dry voice, "Great group therapy. Think we all needed it. But theriouthly. Aradia, I know more than anyone how you feel. I wanted to kill Vrithka too, but by the time I thaw her again, I couldn't do it. The hath changed,"  
Aradia looked conflicted.  
"You know how clothe we were, and the made me kill you," his expression darkened. "But, your death wath quick, the felt no need to make you thuffer. I thaw what you did to Vrithka though."  
Aradiabot narrowed her eyes.  
"If you think I feel guilty about her death, you're wrong,"  
"Would you like to thare what you did to Vrithka with everyone elthe, then?"  
Tilting her head, Aradiabot then said, "I cut her open along all the siphoning lines, and broke her back as a small mercy. Presumably she bled to death, like the majority of her victims. It was just. At least I didn't eat her as she did to her other victims,"  
At this, the room exploded into shouting at both Aradiabot and the still shaking Vriska.  
"Shut up!" Vriska cried suddenly, looking up at the crowd to reveal the tears streaking down her face. "You don't know anything, Aradia! Do you, do you even know how long it, it took for me to die? I fucked up okay! I was selfish, and, and only looked out for my team but I wanted to live! I had to siphon those people or my mum would siphon from me! I didn't want to do it, I was a kid, it fucked me up knowing that I'd killed people, why do you think I'm like this now? And I didn't even know my mum did that to the bodies!"  
Vriska laughed, trying to fake that she was okay, but it made her sound worse.  
"Fuuuuuuuuck, what more, do you want? You've, you've al-ready killed me horribly, haven't I, suffered enough?" she choked, stumbling over her words as she gasped for breath, still in the grips of her anxiety attack. "Just, fuck, please, if you're gonna kill, me again, just do it quickly,"  
Despite not thinking clearly, Vriska knew that her remark could sway people to her side. She did not like sounding vulnerable but it was needed.  
There was more shouting, until the door slammed open and an annoyed soldier told them all to shut up. It was at this point that the two humans and the sprite in the room excused themselves, followed shortly by Feferi climbing onto one of the tables.  
"Hey! Hey, shush, HEY!" Feferi shouted with Nepeta's help, until all attention was on her. She then began to speak at a normal volume. "You two hate and fear each other, and that isn't going to go away, we get it. You've both done awful things which, yes shush we get it! Things you believe to be the right thing. We've all been through so much, we've all been broken in by the Condesce, but this is our chance to get back at her, and to do this we need to work together! So please, save that anger and hatred for the Condesce, and then, when everything is right again, when we've shown her that she no longer has any power over us, then you can sort this out properly."  
Feferi hopped down from the table. "Vriska, we need to talk about some information you might have, I'm sorry, I know you're tired but we need it now,"  
Nodding, Vriska asked, "Could I bring Tavros, if you don't mind?"  
"Of course! I was going to bring the three of you anyway,"  
As soon as the three left the room containing Aradiabot, Tavros noticed how heavy Vriska was beginning to feel, until suddenly she collapsed to the floor, sobbing silently into her palms.  
Feferi gave the girl a confused look, not knowing how to proceed in such a situation when the person crying was none other than the infamous Vriska Serket. "Um, you okay?"  
"I'm okay, just... please keep her away from me? I'll do whatever you want, just, just keep that crazy bitch away,"  
"Vriska," said Feferi softly, crouching before where Vriska lay slumped. "You know I can't agree to that. I will try my best, but I cannot guarantee you'll never see her again."  
"I'll take whatever," Vriska shrugged, before allowing herself to be helped to her feet by Tavros, who quickly wrapped her up in his warm, safe embrace. "Don't look at me."  
Team eight were taken to a small interview room with a round table in the centre. After they were all seated, Feferi pushed the hair back from her face and set a small recording device on the table.  
"So!" she smiled, reading a pencil and notepad. "Vriska, we have reason to believe that you have some information about Sollux's ancestor."  
"What, really?" replied the Brit, clearly surprised.  
"Oh, well hopefully you do, or this whole rescue mission will have been a loss," Feferi winked.  
"How did you know?"  
"Let's just say a little bird told me. You and Eridan are both rubbish at keeping secrets,"  
"Yeah, that's fair. Well, I met his grandfather, yeah, but I don't know how much of what he said was true. He was cleeeeeeeearly mad,"  
"How long ago did you meet him?"  
"It was a few days before we escaped, after the mission where I met with Sollux and Tavros again after the years I'd been separated. It was because of him that we got away, actually. He'll still be stuck down there, I feel kinda bad for that, but it was his choice so..."  
"Where was he?"  
"He was pretty far into the facility. I got lost after a mission, and I picked the lock since it was such an old part of the building. It was a huge room, and he was suspended in these weird tentacle things, absolutely covered in them. I think they were leeching his energy or something?"  
"Okay, thanks. Right, now onto the reel-y important stuff. What did he say?"  
"Don't laugh, promise?"  
"Pinky!" Feferi grinned, extending out her little finger.  
"Ehh?"  
"Oh maybe it's an American thing. Never mind! I promise I won't laugh,"  
"Right. So I can't quite remember all of it, but basically he told us that we were all clones of influential figures on... from another planet,"  
"Ha ha, very funny. Come on Vriska, stop messing about, this is sea-rious!"  
"I am being 'sea-rious', that's what he said!"  
"That'th what the told me too," Sollux said, addressing Feferi.  
"He said that the first wave was sent out at the start of the twenty first century, more or less, and that the genes would skip a generation, then they'd reveal themselves. That's us."  
"What about all the other mutants?"  
"I guess they were the wrong expression of the genes? No fucking idea, I'm just the messenger,"  
"Hmm, well it does sea-m that you're growing an exoskeleton. The Condesce and the Handmaid do look weird too,"  
"Even they're not fully alien. I can't remember what they were doing, but whatever it was it wasn't good. Oh! They were using us to build an army. I think? Doesn't explain why the Condesce flooded the planet though,"  
They were interrupted by a pinging sound coming from Feferi's pocket. Apologising, she pulled it out and frowned.  
"So Nepeta is interviewing those people and the bird guy we picked up along with you, and the girl said that she was on the front lines," Feferi read off the screen, scrolling down quickly to summarise what she had been sent. "And that the Condesce was using mutants to fight with, but also loads of weird bug like creatures. Sound familiar?"  
"Nope, I guess they must have been brought out after we left,"  
"Wonder where all her bug minion things came from,"  
"Unless they're from, uuh, her... our home planet, and she brought the eggs with her?"  
"Maybe bugth breed quicker than people," Sollux shrugged. "The'th probably uthing them like pawnth. The won't want to wathte us, theeing ath we're apparently valuable,"  
"Yeah, shore, I guess she could be? Oh! What was he like?"  
"Who?" replied Vriska.  
"Sollux's ancestor."  
"Grumpy and tired. He's been stuck down there for a long time by the looks of it. I think the Condesce was using his optic blasts as power? He kept calling me Mindfang or something too, which the Condesce did a bunch of times as well."  
"Got it."  
They spoke for a while longer, extracting every piece of information that Vriska remembered about the Condesce and the Psiioniic, and later their escapades outside before they were allowed to leave. Feferi nodded encouragingly the whole time, gasping and tutting at the appropriate moments.  
"Last bit. So I know you don't want to talk about how you died, but we need to know about how you came back."  
"Sorry to disappoint but I don't remember anything," said Vriska dryly. "I died, and then next thing I know I was alive again, encased in a cocoon."  
"I found her when the had died, and covered her with a bunch of brancheth, but I don't think that had anything to do with it," Sollux chimed in. "The wath definitely dead though, no doubt about it. I could thee her coming back from a heart attack or the like, but the had literally bled out."  
Feferi leant back and stared intensely at Vriska, chewing on the end of her pencil.  
"Okay so here's the thing, how do we know that you're the same Vriska? If what you and Sollux are saying is true, then you shouldn't be here right now, let alone the way you are. There is no way that the human body can come back from bleeding out to death without extensive surgery and blood transfusions and so on. You should be dead."  
"Hey! I didn't exactly sign up for this" the cerulean blood snarled. "I have no idea how I did it, but it wasn't anyone else... I don't think. I lost a lot of weight though, so whatever it was that happened took its toll on me."  
"How much have you lost?" asked Feferi.  
"I don't know any specifics, but I do know that my robotic arm feels really heavy when it felt really light before."  
"Huh, well you do look pretty emancipated under those armour plates," Feferi said. "What are those things on your back?"  
"Wings. They don't work very well though; I'm too heavy."  
"I'm just wondering if the same thing would happen to all of us if we got killed..."  
"And why Aradia didn't turn into what you are ath well," Sollux pondered. "Unleth there'th thomething we're mithing. What happened to Aradia, Ff?"  
"She said that she attached her soul to Equius' until he created a new body for her. Presumably you have to have your soul or whatever still inside your body to experience the transformation you did."  
"What about all the kids that we killed in the village then?" Tavros said. "And if that were the case, then, uhh, why didn't the Condesce just kill us all to make us stronger?"  
"She's not necessarily stronger. Clearly she has built in armour now, and wings, but she's also a lot more delicate. It's not really stronger, but different. Haddock got a clue about the mutants we killed in the village though. Maybe the Condesce burnt or buried them before they could change. Maybe she didn't know."  
"It did take about a week after all," muttered Vriska. "Does anyone here know anything about cocoons?"  
"I read an article about them, online before we were abducted but, uhh, that's it really, " shrugged Tavros. "You're the, uh, bug nerd here."  
"I'm not a bug nerd!"  
"Okay but, who was it who picked up every single spider she, um, found in Jade and John's basement?"  
"Okay, I'll concede that I'm a _slight_ spider nerd, but not a bug nerd!"  
"Stop bickering, I'm shore there will be some-fin here about cocoons. When people moved over here they took books and stuff with them, so there is a proper library, plus all the e-books too."  
"I guess I'll go read up on them then. I'll get back to you if I find anything useful," Vriska said. "Is that all you needed?"  
Feferi checked over her notes, tapping the pencil against her bottom lip, before smiling. Yep, for now anyway. Thanks for your help!"  
"Whatever," shrugged Vriska. "Can I go now? I'm bored out of my fucking mind."  
The smile fell from the princess' face.  
"Well this wasn't for fun, I don't know what you expected?" she replied, before a mischievous glint appeared in her eyes. "Oh! You know, I can already tell you've softened a lot, you reel-y don't need to overcompensate with your 'bluh bluh I'm a massive bitch' complex. It's nice to see you happy! Well, happier anyway."  
Vriska flushed angrily, then left.

* * *

A while later, after team eight had gone their separate ways, Vriska stood on the roof, looking up at the empty night sky. As Tavros had pointed out, there really were not any vehicles going overhead. Nothing but the stars and a faint slither of the new moon.  
After a conversation with Equius, the blue blood had agreed to make changes to her robotic arm. Instead of removing the whole thing, he had simply detached it where it met her torso, and carried it off with him. Already her body felt lighter, and part of her was temped to attempt flying again, but she was not ready to risk falling into the ocean for the sake of a few minutes in the air.  
It was strange to think that her mother and Equius' father had been close. For a second, she entertained the idea that perhaps Mr Zahhak was her missing father, but dismissed it quickly. There was no way Vriska could have come out looking the way she did with both parents being incredibly pale. Her lack of father did not bother her too much through, not anymore, and so she put no more thought into the matter.  
Before long, she heard the door to the roof creak open.  
"Wriska, you there?"  
"Eridan! Just the fish I wanted to see," Vriska said as he approached. "Why are you up here?"  
"Wwell, I, uh…"  
"Well I don't really care why you're up here. Apparently you've been telling people we're still kismesis? I mean really I already left the fucking Retainment Organisation to escape from you, like do you need more of a hint?" Vriska sneered, taking out her frustration on the nearest, somewhat willing, victim.  
"Oh, wwell funny story actually, because _I'm_ breakin' up wwith _you_."  
Vriska froze.  
"You're breaking up with me? You can't break up with me! I'm breaking up with you, and besides I'm the best thing that happened to you!"  
"Sorry, Wris, I knoww you wwon't be able to get ower me but it's for the best," he smirked. "It's not me, it's you, so I'm fuckin' off noww."  
"No!"  
Eridan cackled as he stood beside her, leaning against the wall to look up at the sky while Vriska turned to face the sea, resting her arm on the cool concrete.  
"Seriously though, I don't think wwe're good for each other."  
"What's all this about? Feferi actually fall for you while I had Sollux distracted or something?" Vriska asked in a mocking tone.  
"A' course not," he replied. "But this wwhole thing wwas just a distraction for us wwhen wwe wwere the only people wwho wwould talk to each other really. Noww wwe're here, wwe should mowe on."  
Vriska stared hard at him until his face broke out in a flush.  
"Wwhat?"  
"Eridan, please. I know you, and you wouldn't leave someone unless you had someone else there. So who is it?" she said with a suspiciously sweet smile.  
"There's no one else! I'm just ower you is it that hard to beliewe?"  
"It's impossible to believe! You pretty much measure your self worth based off if you're in a relationship."  
"Hey, I didn't hawe to defend you earlier!"  
"Come on! What's gossip between friends?"  
"Wwe're hardly friends, Wris."  
"Come oooooooon!" she purred, leaning closer to him.  
"Ugh, I'm not tellin' you anythin' Wris, so cut the act."  
Vriska groaned and slumped back into her previous position of looking at the ocean.  
"Who's even here? It's not Nepeta is it?"  
"Stop." he said firmly, before a look of revelation suddenly spread across her face. "No! Don't-"  
"Oh my God, is it _Karkat_?" she gasped. "Judging by your spluttering I'm going to say yes."  
"Nothin' has really happened, an' anywway, that's got nothin' to do wwith this."  
"Nothing _really_ , huh?" Vriska giggled, before deciding to let Eridan off. "Whatever."  
"You're just gonna let it go? Taw wwas right, you hawe changed."  
"Dying does that to you," she shrugged, sombre. "Do you really think the catfish duo can do it? You know, fight the Condesce?"  
Eridan snorted angrily. "A' course they fuckin' can't. Wwe're a glorified bunch a' kids, and Fef is way in ower her head."  
"You try telling her that?"  
"Yeah but she got super pissed at me. Like, I'm not doin' it to be a dick, I wwas wworried about her, but she acts like I'm some kinda monster for bein' realistic," Eridan sighed, then turned to Vriska with an almost conspiring look in his eyes. "Listen, wwe're thought a' as the willains of this group aren't wwe?"  
At this, Vriska raised an eyebrow at him, amused, until she thought about it for a little longer. The raised eyebrow lowered into a frown. He was completely correct. "Fef, Nep, Tav, they're the heroes of this story, doin' wwhat's right, helpin' eweryone they come across, sacrificin' themselwes for others. It comes naturally to them. But wwe're different, wwe look out for ourselwes, wwhich isn't ewil but it's considered it by them."  
"Fuck, yeah, you're not wrong," Vriska murmured. "I mean, that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to fuck up the sea bitch but…"  
"I mean, you sawed Tav and Sol's liwes, got killed, _came back_ and eweryone had the audacity to fuckin' _jeer_ at you! You could single handedly take out the Condesce and they'd still treat us like… like shit."  
"I don't know, Eridan. I mean it's true but there's no use getting hung up over it. There's nothing we can do about it, and it's kinda fun being the villain, isn't it?" she grinned devilishly.  
"I just think it's stupid that people think wwe're ewil because we look out for ourselves. I mean look at this fuckin' situation, a' course I'm gonna think about myself before eweryone else, I'we gotta surwiwe!"  
"Don't get hung up over it, Eridan. We may not be loved by everyone but we're surviving like you said, and that's what's important."  
"No it's not! Cause Fef is gonna go out there and fight the sea wwitch, and she's gonna die!"  
"Then go with her! Get mad! What the fuck is left here anyway to live for? We're living on a glorified boat in the middle of the ocean, bickering amongst ourselves and slowly starving. That farm isn't gonna last forever. You could go to the Condesce and live on her boat, or you could stay here on this boat while everyone else is fighting, _oooooooor_ you could go and fuck up the sea bitch for fucking us up. Yeah, we'll probably all die but… I don't even care at this point?" Vriska made a sound that could have been a laugh or a sob. "I've already died, sometimes I don't even know if I'm alive now or not. I found out my family were even shittier than I thought they were, and they're probably dead too so I've not even got them. I literally have you guys left to live for, and half of you think I'm the devil incarnate so…"  
"Wris…"  
"Not that I'm going to get killed by her! We'll fuck her up and then… I don't know but it'll be worth it. So you gonna come with me? We've got nothing to lose unlike the rest of these fuckers. I know you have some potential in there amidst all the wasted shit in there, so fight with me!"  
"Wris, you're disgustingly motiwatin' sometimes."  
"So you're coming?"  
"Don't knoww, I'll think about it," he replied, noncommittal as always. It drove Vriska up the wall. Lousy goddamn stupid Eridan.  
Suddenly there was a loud crash as the door to the roof flew open and Vriska dropped into a crouch.  
"Vrriska, are you up 'ere?" asked a slightly slurred voice. Aradiabot.  
Eridan had subconsciously stood before her, shielding her from view completely thanks to his cape. Vriska made a silent promise to never laugh at the prince for his fashion choices ever again.  
"Just me."  
"Told you she wasn't here!" Nepeta giggled as she staggered out from behind the robot, throwing an arm other the other girl's shoulder. "Just Mr Grumpy Gills! Forever alone as usual."  
"Are you drunk?" the seadweller sneered, ignoring Nepeta's comment. "Howw do you ewen get a robot drunk?"  
"Equis is a vurry good coder, and Nep's jussst a… lightweight, was it?"  
"Furr-ck you, Aradia! I'm not a lightweight, I've drunk half a bottle of whiskey and I'm still cohare… coherent, more than what can be said for you!"  
The two girls burst into a fit of laughter at each other, barely noticing Eridan. The prince, on the other hand, could feel Vriska beginning to shake against the back of his legs and cleared his throat.  
"If you're just gonna stand there and make embarrassments a' yourselwes then you may as wwell leawe me alone," he huffed.  
"Oh come on, grumpy, it's not like you have any-fin better to do! Oops, Feferi is rubbing off on me! We're having a party, join in!"  
"I'd rather not," he replied, stiffening in shock. "This is hardly the time for a party."  
"Aww come on, Errridan!" Aradia purred, her French accent particularly strong. "Feferri is, ah, wasted, and Sollurx is no where to be, tp be found. She needs a big hero to come and save 'er from making any…" Her voice lowered. "Bad decisions."  
"Yeah, she's already tried to kiss me, and doesn't even have a crush on me. Everyone knows she had a thing for you a while back!" Nepeta cackled.  
"I'm not takin' adwantage of a drunk girl if that's what you're suggestin',"  
"No! Saying you should drrink too! We're doing all the final planning shit tomorrow and it's going to be serrious after that, so!"  
"So!" Nepeta shouted with her.  
"Wwhat did you wwant wwith Wris anywway?" Eridan asked uneasily.  
"Oh! I wanted to ask her to join in! This tension is, ah, not good for anything. We need to work together, Feferri was rrright. I can barrely rremem-ber what even happen."  
"Plus Karkat is fuckin' pissed and we need someone to calm him down."  
"Ugh, Wris I'm sorry but this is probably a good time for you to sort shit out," Eridan sighed and stepped to the side, revealing the still shaking Vriska. She took a deep breath, then stood up and in one fluid motion marched up to Nepeta, grabbed the half drunk bottle of whiskey and downed several gulps before cringing.  
"You wanna talk, Aradiabot? Fine. Go find Sollux or Tavros, alright Eridan? Feferi will appreciate it in the morning."  
"Parfait!" the robot beamed. Nepeta and Eridan slunk off to where the party was being held, leaving only the two murderers behind.  
"You can drop the act now, Aradia. There's no way you're really drunk. You haven't got a body," Vriska said in a deadpan voice, beginning to feel the tell tale tingle of the alcohol in her hand. Her body was still shaking, however, so she took another hefty swig from the bottle, cringing once more. "This stuff is potent, where did Nepeta find it?"  
"Vrriskuh, there is not an act! I just wanted to sort this out, and Equius was kind enough to, to give me some of your Dutch courage, as you say. You think I feel brave around you? You scare me, Vriska. Et poor Tavros' love for you confuses me no end," the robot fixed her red eyes on Vriska. "You're a 'orrible perrson."  
"You're hardly an impeccable citizen yourself, Aradia," Vriska smiled back, one that did not reach her eyes. Her body and the anxieties attached were feeling more and more distant now; she could talk to Aradia without breaking down finally. "Listen here. I'm not proud of what I did, but I had no choice! You, killed because you wanted to though."  
Aradia threw her head back and laughed - a strange rasping sound that might have sounded pretty had she been human still.  
"Vriska, si vous plait, we will not argue details over who was right and wrong in killing. I want to know 'ow you did it. 'ow you come back from the dead."  
"Why?"  
"Why? Et bien, why do you think! I 'ave no body, I'm stuck in this… this 'usk! I 'ate it, I can't sleep, or eat, or protect my thoughts. I am a ghost stuck in a robot, it is a 'orrible thing. I don't know what you did, but you died and were reborn in your body. If you get me my body back, maybe I can let this thing, ah, slide I think you say."  
"Don't you have some sort of dictionary in your head for phrases like that?"  
"Vriska, enough on the detail. You want to 'elp me?"  
There were pros and cons to the deal given by Aradia. Good? Vriska would not have to put up with Aradia wanting to kill her, and that could well result in the rest of the mutants treating her like a human being as opposed to some stain that would not go. While Vriska resented the other mutants for hating her, she would not be opposed to them treating her as a fellow human being. Bad? It implied that Aradia had done nothing wrong and was being oh so gracious in letting Vriska live, as well as the rather glaring problem that Vriska did not know how she was reborn.  
With a deep frown, Vriska tried to think through her answer, though the alcohol which had previously been helping her was now hindering her ability to think through the deal clearly.  
"Voyant, it's not that 'ard!"  
"I'd love to help because then you'd get off my case, but…" Should she reveal her trump card of not knowing how she did it? No. This could work for Vriska. "I'll do it."  
"Ah! Parfait!" Aradia grinned, and somehow she looked just as happy as she did when she was still alive. There was no use in lying to the robot, Vriska decided, she would be honest. Even giving her the truth there was a chance that she would die and not return.  
"You said you were a ghost in that body, right? Well then it's obvious. You have to die, and if the Condesce still has your body then you will wake up in it there… you'll wake up a god, cheating death…"  
"Mais… if it goes wrong then… I'll die."  
"I died. It's possible to come back. But yes, you could die for good."  
The robot fell silent, her face settling back into the usual blank slate as she thought.  
"The others would stop me, non?"  
"They don't understand what it is like to be trapped in a broken body," Vriska assured her, then muttered, "Well, maybe Tavros…"  
"I will try. Tomorrow morning," Aradiabot decided. "I will say my goodbyes tonight in preparation. Even if it works, I will be trapped with the Condesce."  
"Are you going to tell anyone?"  
Nodding, Aradia said, "Je vait… I will tell Feferi, before I go. Maybe we can get tactic out of this."  
There was something oddly satisfying about helping Aradia find peace, Vriska decided. Plus, there was a very high change that she would never see the maroon-blood again, which was also satisfying, though there was nothing odd about that satisfaction in the least.  
"What now? We're gonna become _BFFLs_?" the Brit sneered.  
"Vriska, I've never liked you. I thought you were a bitch the first time I met you, and you 'ardly give me reason to think otherwise. Tavros is too sweet, 'e would 'elp even the most 'orrible of people so 'is judgement doesn't prove me wrong," the robot said in a serious tone, fixing that awful red glare on her again. "But… Sollux thinks you 'ave changed. And 'e is not easily swayed. I do not think I will ever like you, but we can stop the killing."  
"Fine with me," shrugged Vriska, as the robot had a perfectly good point. Though she disagreed about Tavros, she did not want to argue anymore. For the second time in an hour, the door to the roof slammed open, showing a highly distressed Tavros.  
"Get away from her, Aradia!" he bellowed, speeding towards them, his metal legs glinting in the starlight.  
"Oh, it's alright, pupa. We've sorted it all out," Vriska said dismissively with a wave of her hand, standing up fully from her previously leaning position, only to find that her legs had become like jelly. "Oh."  
Tavros grimaced. "Not you too."  
"Come on! Let's all go back inside, we deserve a break after all this, shit!" Aradia decided, and led them back to where the rest of the mutants were.  
An evening of drinking games, sloppy make outs and fun was enjoyed by the nine teenagers, just as they would have been doing in a different time. Ties were strengthened, past battles forgiven and allegiances forged.  
Vriska had a vague memory of Sollux downing the remainder of the whiskey in her bottle, of some card game involving stripping where everyone was frustratingly good at keeping their clothes on, Feferi and Nepeta dancing on the table followed shortly by the pair of them throwing up out of the window, playing hoops with the various horns in the circle though with what none could remember. Her clearest memory was Eridan and Feferi performing along to a cheesy song they had released when they were still idols, and Karkat who had been a surprisingly mellow drunk had got up and joined in, before they all stopped pretending they no longer remembered it and sang along together. Even Equius had turned up, blushing heavily with Aradiabots arms around his and Nepeta's waists as they belted out the sugary lyrics. Her last memory of the night was the nine of them looking up at the ceiling together as they talked about all the shit that had happened, while the seadwellers sang a foreign song to themselves in low, husky voices.  
She woke the next morning with her head in Eridan's lap, Tavros' head on hers, and Karkat resting his head against the seadwellers, It seemed she was the first to wake, and opted against her usual routine of massaging her damaged calves due to the boy sleeping on her legs. As slowly as she could, she moved into a resting position against the wall and softly stroked Tavros's hair.  
It seemed that whatever Aradia was on, it had forced her into a sleep mode beside the mechanic of the group, head tucked under his chin and arms wrapped tightly around his waist. Sprawled over the low table and each other were Feferi and Nepeta, with Sollux's feet just about peeping out from between the table legs. Vriska could not hold in her mirth any longer, and before long all the mutants were woken by her loud peals of laughter, groaning with hands held to their heads.  
It was at this moment that the door opened, and Ms Pyrope walked in.  
"You're finally awake! Get ready all of you, you can clean the room when we're done with our meeting."  
"What's up?" Feferi asked, grimacing as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.  
"Your planning meeting for the attack against the Condesce is in half an hour. Get ready, my flowers, it's going to be a long day."  
With that, Su, closed the door behind her and left the mutants to their own devices.  
They stared at the door for a few long seconds, before her words sunk in and they all scrambled to their feet, realising how little time they had to get ready for the most important meeting yet.  
Lousy goddamn stupid alcohol, but none would have had the night any other way… except perhaps Vriska due to her missing arm that evening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick disclaimer, I wrote the bulk of this while I was really sleepy so it reads like a melodramatic cringy soap opera at times, sorry about that ono I was really behind though and just wanted to get this chapter out so yeah, I'm aware of the cringe and sorry :s  
> Plsu I know that it was a less than stellar resolution to the conflict between Aradia and Vriska, but we're nearing the end and things need to be sorted out soon, plus I wanted them to have a night off before all the shit goes down :)


	5. The Backstory Episode

"What day is it?" asked the Handmaid, though she knew roughly when she was. They were in the newer base, she recognised it from her youth and felt a small surge of relief. While the Condesce was still as dangerous and malicious as she always was, she was also far more distracted and busy than she had been in previous years and it could mean that the Handmaid would get off a little lighter... or not, but the odds were in her favour.

"You're not the one asking the questions, Handmaid."

The Condesce sounded rough, as if she had been drinking heavily the night before and was currently nursing a hangover.

"Let's just cut to the chase. How did you escape?" the older woman growled, though barely seemed to notice the Handmaid. When she was met with silence, she looked the maroon blood in the eyes and frowned. "You realise that you are the oldest iteration we have seen yet, do you not? You're...what, twenty two? Twenty three? You're as old now as you'll ever get, and that means only one thing, let's be honest here. You die, and very soon. Your little time travelling problem is hardly going to stop anytime soon."

"Well if I'm to die anyway then I see no reason to rat out anyone."

"We know you took the tunnels. You got the Psiioniic to short out the system, didn't you? He died, you know that? Your reckless attempt at escape killed him and got you no where."

It was an easy blow, and one that the Handmaid had expected. She had never been close to the Psiioniic; he unnerved her and his clear attachment to her had always made her uncomfortable. If he was willing to throw his life away for her then it was his business, not hers. Part of her felt a small bit of guilt at the thought of being responsible for his death, but the Condesce's taunts mostly fell on uncaring ears.

"Don't you care at all, you bitch?" spat the Condesce, rousing the slumbering troll behind her. Gamzee drew himself up to his full height and stood behind the sea witch, his expression unusually calm. "If you'd rather be silent, though, perhaps you could keep my highblood company for an hour or so."

At this the Handmaid frowned, shoulders slumping forward. For years she had spent her life looking out for no one but herself, and perhaps Doc Scratch, and it was a safe life. With no one to worry for, the Condesce had nothing to threaten her with, and no-one they could use her for information against. Now it was different, she supposed.

"In all honesty, I am not sure where they are. This stupid time travel made me up and vanish before we got away."

"Do you think I'm _that_ stupid, Handmaid?" the Condesce snorted. "You know what they're doing."

"You think I'd hide it? You know as well as I do that I left to get away. I don't care about a load of brats, anymore than I care about Doc. You're readin' too much into this," she replied, maintaining a deadpan expression. "They were runnin' as fast as they could to get away, and I was too. We happened to be going the same way and now I'm back here."

The Condesce tapped her nails on the desk rapidly, thinking.

"You had an attachment to that kid though, Sollux, wasn't it?" the fushia blood asked. If not for her serious expression, the Handmaid would have laughed.

"Sollux? Puh-lease, I've had more than my fill of the Psiioniic's family. I have no interest in another scrawny nerd with no concept of personal space."

"Hmpf." Ahh, right. The Condesce had a thing for the Psiioniic. "Well that may be true, but surely you must have had an idea of where you were going?"

"We were in the tunnels for weeks, you know that. We cannot see in the dark, we were running until we would find an exit, which we never did. They could still be down there."

"I doubt that, we have searched the tunnels extensively."

"You _did_ train us to be elite soldiers."

It seemed as if the Condesce had bought her story. Whenever the Handmaid had to lie she kept the story as close to the truth as possible, and if she was honest with herself she did care very little for the three members of group 8, or at least she told herself that.

While she would be under supervision most of the time, the older Handmaid would fill the role her younger iteration had, as well as accompany the human and carapace guards on their rounds. There was no denying that the purebred Alternian was intimidating, even more so than the rainbow drinkers, and due to that she was an invaluable asset to the Retainment Organisation.

A thick metal collar was secured about her neck, and four chains extended out of this, which were held by four of the guards to 'ensure she would not escape', which was a laughable idea considering she was in a fortress in the middle of the ocean. The Handmaid felt complimented by their paranoia however. It was remarkably similar to how it looked from her past, and she decided that she must have had only one period of time in the new complex before the one she was currently inhabiting.

In her past time here, she had never left the training rooms or her cell, so it was interesting to see the other areas whilst being paraded about. The areas inhabited by the Condesce and her previous armies were sterile yet warm, with an abundance of sea food and comforts. Below these floors was the area for the humans who had come to the Condesce and agreed to become her soldiers in exchange for food and shelter, and the atmosphere was noticeably different; there was a subtle chill to the air, and the few humans she saw looked healthy enough, yet had a broken in look to their eyes, and while most would flock to the guards in order to prove their loyalty to the Condesce, some would avoid her gaze like a hunted animal.

When they neared the lift for the lowest floors, they were joined by a squad of rainbow drinkers with nasty looking weapons.

"We pick soldiers based off two things, and these are both as important as each other. The candidate must be physically strong, and must also be weak willed so we can mould them to what we want," one of the rainbow drinkers, a teal blood, explained. He was tall and willowy, with the luminescent skin that was typical of his kind. "You are not to select anyone, however. This is merely so you have some understanding of what is about to happen. Our job is to keep the mobs of humans back from those selecting."

"What happens to the unlucky sods who aren't picked?" the Handmaid asked.

"They're supposed to go back to where they came from, but they never leave," he frowned. "The Condesce usually let's her attack dog rough them up when he gets too pent up."

"What does she even need an army for? It's not like anyone's puttin' up a fight."

The rainbow drinker shrugged, "There's still a lot of resistance from the non flooded areas, and the governments of what's left have merged their armies. Though of course this won't be a problem when the next flood happens."

There was an unsettling level of anticipation in his voice, and the Handmaid's chest twinged with sadness at how well he had been conditioned to side with the Condesce.

"Ready yourself," said a soft voiced indigo blood. He was short, and came only to the Handmaid's elbows. "It is not a pleasant sight."

The door slid open with a cheery jingle, revealing an immense, low roofed room with harsh, cold lighting, which complimented the light from the overcast day through the windows.

"This isn't so bad," she replied with a snort. Sure, there were an insane number of people packed into the area, but only a few looked injured. Most simply looked cold and miserable.

Suddenly, as the majority noticed their presence, a wave of humans crashed onto the barrier before her, pleading for their lives. Some attempted to appeal to her, promising her all manner of worldly wealth in return for picking them and their families, others threatening her and her relatives unless they were picked.

A loud cry of anger prompted the Handmaid's ears to swivel; behind her a group of people had latched onto one of the human guards in an attempt to drag them into the crowd. The closest guards and rainbow bloods to the kerfuffle attempted to drag the guard back, hissing to intimidate them to no avail.

"Do something scary," the teal blood murmured to the Handmaid.

"Like what? I'm not a dog."

Before she knew what had happened, she had been jabbed in the back, and a sharp pain jolted through her body. Roaring at the top of her lungs, she clawed at the collar about her neck and out towards the crowd, driven half mad from the pain of the electric shock.

The roar of the Alternian made them lurch back from the gate, pushing as far back as the crowd would allow. Evidently she reminded them of the now feral Gamzee far more than the rainbow bloods. Those who were picking the new soldiers took this opportunity to grab a few potentials and their families. The next half hour was spent in a similar way, the Handmaid shrieking through the cloud of pain from the repeated shocks. Yet it worked perfectly, and no more guards were dragged out.

An errand boy escorted the Handmaid and her handlers to meet with the Condesce again, who was sat behind her desk with a huge, sinister grin.

"Enjoy the walk?" the sea witch asked, an infuriatingly casual tone to her words. Deciding against gracing her with a response, the Handmaid instead chose to stare at the floor, too weak to do something defiant. "Well while you're up, I have something I want to show you."

The lowblood was hoisted to her feet again, then they were led through the building. While the building was the Condesce's, and accordingly a place that would forever hold a certain level of resentment in the Handmaid's eyes, she could not deny that the Condesce's floor was gorgeous. Waterfalls cascaded down the walls, carved from vast slabs of dark, volcanic rock. Vines and other plants of all kinds were encouraged to grow upon sections of this, cascading their leaves down to create a warm green glow to the rooms. The ceilings of many of the rooms on the top floor had the option for the reinforced shutters to be retracted, allowing plenty of natural light to pour into the room, a mercy when the sun was out, as the ocean seemed to leech all the heat from the building.

Small birds and insects fluttered about in the room, collecting nectar from the flowers, and hoarding it back to their nests. The Condesce plucked one such bird from the air, and popped it in her mouth, seeming to savour the morsel. The Handmaid shuddered with revulsion, and only hoped that Gamzee did not do anything similar with passers by.

Before long, they reached a vast, metallic orb suspended in the the centre of the building, a lone bridge reaching out from the top floor into the tip of it. It was this room which they were heading to. The new control room.

"I thought you might be more inclined to acknowledge the error of your ways if you could see the effect it has had on innocent's lives," the Condesce said breezily, typing in a pass-code for the door. The code was accepted, and the doors slid open with a sigh, the room beyond too dark for the Handmaid's maladjusted eyes, though they soon grew accustomed to the lower light conditions.

It was apparent that this spherical room was the new base of operations for the Condesce. Screens and projections lined the walls with maps and live feeds from agents on missions, the Handmaid recognised a few of the faces in the room, with Kanaya manning one of the stations, feeds from Cronus, a name she vaguely recognised, and Meenah were on the screen. Kanaya looked very frustrated, and she could hear bickering between the two seadwellers.

Then she caught a glimpse of the centrepiece of the room. Suspended in those awful tentacles was the very small figure of the Psiioniic's ancestor, and the Handmaid felt her stomach lurch. He was there because of her.

"Enjoying the view? If your opinion of all pissbloods is as low as it was for the Psiioniic then I imagine this won't affect you, but due to your actions this innocent has been forced into undertaking his role. He shall probably expire soon as well; he really isn't built for this. It really is a shame that you forced my hand into installing him early."

' _I can_ _'_ _t let her get to me, block it out_.' the Handmaid reminded herself. She was well versed in the Condesce's mind tricks, but it had never previously been the case that someone else was suffering on her behalf.

"Nothing to say on the matter? That's such a shame," the Condesce shrugged, trying her best to sound nonchalant while smiling. She walked towards the boy, stopping a foot before him and stared at his pained expression. "I can only hope he becomes even half the powercell that… that the Psiioniic was, but, this one is damaged."

Unsettling was the most fitting description for the Condesce's affections towards the Psiioniic, and the Handmaid worried for his ancestor, or whoever the boy was. While the sea witch had Gamzee as a plaything, it was apparent that she only held minimal affection for him; he was a stand in for the Grand Highblood, who was nothing more than no strings attached lover when needed. As for the fathers of the Condesce's offspring, well, she decided she would rather not know.

No, the one creature in the entire cosmos which the fushia blood held any real affection and pity towards was the Psiioniic, and in her eyes it had been the Handmaid who had killed him. The lowblood pressed her lips together, and hoped the Condesce would place reason over emotion.

In other terms, she was screwed.

Luck was on her side however, well... in a sense. The Condesce decided that her talents were needed at the present, and as such any execution would be put off until her plans for domination were complete. How thoughtful. Still, the Handmaid was in no place to complain, despite the events of the past day.

For the Handmaid, she had been down in the tunnels with Tavros, before traveling back to the nineteen-twenties without warning and spending a week with the Doc Scratch currently inhabiting that time. It was pleasant living in a time without the Condesce, and the ring they had all been given for camouflage among the humans allowed her to travel relatively freely. It was always a shame how it had seemingly been lost at some point before the present day, resulting in her confinement to the Retainment Organisation, and part of her wondered whether it had been misplaced purposefully.

That morning she had woken up, done her stretches, and midway through eating breakfast was zapped forwards in time to appear beside a very surprised current Doc Scratch, a day at most ahead of where she had previously been in the future. She barely had time to throw on the robe offered to her before she was dragged out to the Condesce's office.

A fortnight passed in a similar fashion. Most mornings and evenings she would be taken down to the ground floor and forced to play monster for the refugees, and if her acting was not to the desired standard she would be shocked into a pained rage. Between these, she trained Rufioh and Terezi, though in all honesty the teal blood was in perfect shape already, and needed a break to emotionally deal with the news of her teammate's deaths if anything. The Handmaid was more than happy to let the girl practice fighting against the battle robots however. It seemed that the fighting helped take her mind off the events.

On that particular day, her body weak from the earlier shocks, the Handmaid remained seated for the training sessions with Rufioh and watched his form as he fought against the brobot. Rufioh seemed happy enough with this, though his initial awkwardness about her had begun to lessen much to the Handmaid's relief. Terezi was no where to be found, supposedly having a 'private chat' with Doc Scratch. At least it was not with the Condesce herself.

Eventually, the fighting resulted in the bronze blood receiving a hard blow to the head while falling, effectively ending the fight.

"You've gotta be aware of your surroundings, kid," scolded the Handmaid as she produced an ice pad from the first aid cupboard. She shook the pad vigorously, triggering the cooling mechanism and handed it to Rufioh. "Make a mistake like that in a real fight and you're dead meat."

"I know… it was an accident," he replied, avoiding her gaze. "I slipped."

"Hm," She shut the cupboard, then sat beside him, nibbling on a biscuit.

"Hey… I'm sure this is probably really probing and stuff, but are you okay? You look like… you haven't slept at all the past week." The genuine concern in the boy's eyes brought a small smile to her face; he reminded her of the other bronze blood she knew sometimes.

"Had a rough morning."

"Well, if you're sure…" The boy did not seem at all convinced, however, and it was at that point that it hit her. To Rufioh, it was as if the woman had suddenly aged four years a fortnight ago, and while she did not look overly different, she had still matured.

"Ah, of course. You wouldn't know," she chuckled. Normally, she would not tell her students about the powers she possessed, but with her execution looming over in the near future, she decided that there was little point in being as cautious as she had been in her youth. "What would you say if I told you I was a time traveler?"

"Hey, I know you look older, but… I'm not going to fall for that one, doll," he replied with a smirk, leaning back in his chair.

"Doll? Not heard that one in a while..." she snorted. "Choose to believe what you want, but it's true."

Rufioh frowned, "Come on… you really expect me to believe you? Like, I've seen a lot of shit here, but that's just ridiculous."

"Your belief does not affect my reality, bimbo," she shrugged, then got to her feet, wincing as her body protested at the movement. "Damn."

"You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, just got a few thousand bolts shot through my body this morning so I'm feeling a little tenderized." She shook her head at the bronze blood's offer of help.

"What!? What did you do? Like, I know you're hardly a higher up but I didn't think the Condesce would actually take anything out on you."

"I escaped from the previous base, so she's pretty cheesed off with me."

"You escaped? Why did you come back?"

"Already said. Kinda. When I escaped, my body decided that I should absolutely travel back to another time, before moving me back here again. I can't control the time jumps, it's a pain in the ass," The Handmaid grumbled some more about the pain then stiffly made her way back towards the centre of the training room. "Is your head feeling better?"

"Kinda, I mean it's been better you know?"

"That'll do, get back to work then."

"W-wait a minute, so… if you really are a time traveler or whatever, then who are you?" asked Rufioh, clearly incredibly confused. "Or should I say _when_ are you... no actually that doesn't make any sense, never mind."

**== WAIT is this the Handmaid's tragic backstory? FINALLY?**

"I'm who I said I am. I'm the Handmaid. No more and no less."

"The Handmaid? That can't be your name, come on… we're both grown ups, we can stop playing around now."

"I am not playing around, and the Handmaid is my name. If you are going to begin with this Danara mess or whatever she was called again, then I'd rather not go there."

"But you're the spitting image of Damara! Like… okay, I know I was a complete asshole to you, but you weren't exactly a sweetie back after the shit happened either?"

"The Condesce and Meenah look identical, but they're different people and act completely differently. Do I act like this Damara?"

"I know the Condesce looks really similar to Meenah but it's different. There aren't two of you to compare between in the same way…"

"Do I act like the Damara girl you keep talking about?" the Handmaid repeated, pressing him for an answer.

Rufioh was silent for a few seconds, then replied, "No."

"I am not Damara. I am me."

"And who is that then, doll?" he asked softly.

The Handmaid snorted, "Why do you want to know?"

"Why not? What you got to lose?" His tone was almost flirtatious now

"I don't know. I was 'born' in the 1920's by mistake, I was in the wrong time somehow, according to the Condesce," she paused and looked over at Rufioh, who gave her a nod and a smile. "Either way, I was found by a man called Dr. Scratch, who raised me until I reached fifteen, and it was at about that point that I wondered about the ring stuck on my finger. I'd never questioned it before - I guess that was part of the codin' thingamagig it came with - but I took it off, and suddenly I became this alien… thing. The ring I arrived with was some sort of concealer, I won't pretend to understand modern technology, but it worked by suppressin' my alien genes and projecting a field of human appearances or… somethin'. Either way I was distressed, as you could well understand, and this stress triggered my powers to manifest once more, and I skipped forward to the future, and that is where I was met with the Condesce.

'She had been anticipatin' my arrival, and had technology that could pin point on the location of time travellers, and she was waitin' for me with Doc Scratch. It turned out that the man who had raised me had been sent back to intercept me, as I was a very important asset to the Condesce. She wanted my time traveling powers, but, it didn't really work out as she wanted it. My powers are as unstable as ever, and instead of havin' a time traveler, she got an agent who spent her whole life flitting between two time periods."

"Uh huh."

"And she told me about how I was one of a group of these twelve important figured from another planet called Alternia or somethin', and how we had been sent to wipe out the current species livin' there in preparation for colonisation. I thought she was crazy, an' I told her as such but she didn't take kindly to that. Happily told me every last detail to her plans though. Claims to be the reborn empress to this planet to boot. But she talks about all these other people from the group of twelve like they were her buddies, and sometimes it's like… I can remember them as well."

The bronze blood looked somewhat distressed, and the Handmaid worried that she had overwhelmed him with her story. Oversharing had never been an issue that she possessed, so she was not sure what had happened just then. Perhaps her impending death, his remarkably similar appearance to Tavros and the fact that he was willing to listen had combined into one big clusterfuck of emotions. Yeah. Probably that.

Coughing to hide her discomfort, the Handmaid said, "That's enough of that anyway, back to work."

"Ahh, no don't be embarrassed. I just…. don't know what to say. I mean, how often do you hear a ride as wild as that, you know? So, uh, if all this _is_ true, by chance… was there someone who looked like me?"

"Sure, he was called the Summoner. He led a revolution against the high bloods and did a lot of good for low bloods. Before all the flooding shenanigans anyway."

"Really?" The Handmaid was not entirely sure whether Rufioh believed her or not, but he seemed rather engrossed in the story regardless. "So, like, what's he doing now?"

"He died about ten years ago. Don't suppose there were any cerulean bloods with you, were there?"

"Yeah, but she didn't get captured and taken here, or whatever happened."

"Well, your alter-ego had a romantic liaison with hers for a while, aaaand then he bumped her off after they broke up and moved on. I don't know how you're related to the Summoner, but he's got a grandkid now. He was actually one of the people I ran away with. Good guy."

"Were you and him…?"

"No," she dismissed quickly. "I didn't hold a torch for him, if that's what you're suggesting. Our timelines have been seriously messed up, so I trained that whole group from when they were little kids, it'd be weird."

"Oh, hah, okay…"

The atmosphere grew somewhat awkward, so the Handmaid stood up. "Yes, well, either way you're not to tell anyone about what I just said. Clear?"

"Crystal, doll."

She chuckled, turning her head away and barked, "Back to work! Try not to hit your head this time."

Two hours passed, with the bronze blood doing his best at fighting the brobot off. After a while of watching him, the Handmaid asked, "Who is Damara?"

The question caused Rufioh to lose focus for a second, creating an opening for the brobot, who swiftly smacked him in the ribs with the flat side of his sword. Rufioh leapt back and fended off another hit with the staff he had been provided with.

"You ever fight a day in your life?"

"Uh, no? Most people don't need to."

"Quit playing the goat."

"I, uh… I have no idea what that means, but I doubt a little girl needed to fight people anyway."

"Hey! I was the rowdiest kid on the block, and… oh damn it I got distracted. Who was Damara?"

"I'll, tell you if you switch this robot off." The Handmaid issued an order, and it stopped dead in it's tracks. "She's just an ex of mine, but we parted ways pretty badly. That's all. So obviously seeing you was a bit of a shock since you look identical, you know?"

"Explains the awkwardness. What happened to her?"

"Uhh, it's not something I'm really proud of… I'd rather not say. She's not here though and that's for the best. After our… breakup things took a turn for the worst, and after some meddling from Meenah she flew off the handle." Rufioh kept his back to the Handmaid as he washed his face in the sink at the far side of the room, avoiding eye contact with her.

"Right."

* * *

**== So, that backstory wasn** **'** **t as dramatic as I expected** **…** **lets be someone else!**

Who would you like to be?

**== Be** **…** **um** **…** **Jade!**

You are now Jade Harley, and you are wondering if staying with the mutants is worth all of their drama.

"M wrrndrrn f stayn wiv v mtns s'wurf der drumuh!" said Jade, half way through some rehydrated spaghetti bolognaise. A strange breakfast, but there was little in the way of toast and cereal.

"Empty your bin before you talk, Harley," Davesprite interrupted. "Can't understand a word you're saying."

Jade swallowed, then repeated her sentence. "I _said_ , I'm wondering if staying with the mutants is worth all of their drama!"

"Ohh! Yeah, it's crazy! Did you hear them last night? Feferi used her princess card to get a load of booze, it was super unprofessional." John groaned. "One of them was banging on the door for like ten minutes last night."

"I thought I heard something! Which one was it?" asked Jade.

"Dunno, he had a Californian accent, and was shouting about how much of an asshole I was, or something like that. He seemed pretty pissed off with me anyway…"

"How did I not hear that, oh my God!" Jade frowned. The three of them shared a room, deciding that strength in numbers would be best in such a strange place. "What a weirdo, like, not to be rude but most of them are so creepy! If not for Tavros, I'd be more than happy to leave them all alone to be honest…"

"Yeah, that fight between Vriska and the robot broad was ridiculous. Didn't even know shit like that happened." Dave snorted.

"Well of course you wouldn't, Dave! You lived at the top of a high rise apartment and barely ever left." Jade said, shooting a quick smirk at the sprite.

"Coming from Ms I-Lived-Alone-On-An-Island-For-Most-Of-My-Life that means a lot, thanks." His tone of voice was dry, but Davesprite still had a small smile on his face. A rarity. Jade bumped her shoulder to his, giggling.

"But seriously! Like, Vriska was okay but after all the stuff the robot lady said about her it's kinda scary to think we let her stay in the basement. Like, she was a siphoner _and_ ate the corpses to boot!"

John shook his head, "To be fair to her, she did the siphoning to survive, and didn't realise about the cannibalism stuff."

"The last time someone came to the rescue that fast for someone, they probably got laid." replied Davesprite.

"Yeah John! Don't tell us you have a crush!"

"I don't like Vriska in that way, God no," John shuddered. "She was intense enough when we were kids, never mind now."

Davesprite commented, "Nepeta seems fine, she's got her head screwed on right."

Nodding seriously, Jade replied, "Yeah, and Feferi is nice, but her grin is a bit creepy with all those teeth! Oh!" She turned around to face Davesprite, a determined look on her face. "We need to talk!"

"Uh, we do?"

"Yes! What happened to you? Like, gah! You were about to be shot but then another of you appeared and you took the bullet and then other Dave disappeared, and then you, you _died_ and… and then _this_ happened!" Jade motioned her hand at Davesprite's body. "And you were a baby bird in a fucking _egg_ , but now you're you, but you were dead?"

She took a deep breath, then let it out again slowly, pushing her hair back behind her ears. "So?"

"Sorry Harley, I didn't really get a word of that." Davesprite's expression was guarded, his body language tense.

"Who are you, Davesprite? Jade told me about what happened when you poofed into existence."

The sprite looked uncomfortable, then finally said, "I'm from a different timeline, I guess." He looked up, hoping they would be satisfied with that answer, but it was apparent from their expressions that they were far from satisfied with his explanation. "For me, we were still captured and she tried to harness our powers, but after we failed at it she killed the two of you. I managed to escape but barely. The sea bitch did what she set out to do though, and destroyed out planet. People kept living, but only if she allowed it. We mostly lived on floating cities, or houses on really tall stilts. I spent a few years trying to harness my powers, and eventually I did it. I wanted to go back to when you were about to be killed but I messed up and went to the wrong timeline. I mean, I still saved your life, but not in the way I expected to. I can only assume Dave got teleported back to where I was before, poor kid. That or I replaced him in this timeline, and the other one has now been destroyed…"

"Wait, what? So you're saying that Dave could currently be stuck in the middle of some horrible post-apocalyptic fuck fest all alone?" Jade frowned, distressed. John looked ill as well.

Davesprite seemed taken aback by this.

"Well, yes. Where I came from."

"Fuck. How can we help Dave?" John asked.

The feathers on Davesprites arms raised, seemingly in anger, but he quickly composed himself back to the neutral expression he usually held. "He might not even be there. For all I know he vanished as I traveled to this timeline."

"You _killed_ our Dave?" Jade was taken aback with horror.

Davesprite stood from his seated position, slamming his hands on the table. "I _am_ Dave!"

"Dave wouldn't kill someone so he could have a better chance at life, how do we know you even are him?" John asked slyly. "As far as we know you could just be some trick from the Condesce."

"Unbelievable," the sprite muttered, clearly trying to keep a hold on his emotions but doing a bad job of it. The ruff of fine feathers around his neck was puffing up, and his lips were pressed together tightly, the skin turning white. "I didn't come back to have to put up with this. I came back to save your lives, and all I got was a bullet to the gut and this fucking chicken body."

With that, he left the room.

"Fuck, Dave!" Jade leapt to her feet as he left, but it was too late. "Urgh."

"Okay, so, maybe we didn't handle that in the best way..." John said, giving a self depraving chuckle. "But seriously, how are we supposed to know he's the real Dave?"

"We can't, that's the problem."

"But I guess from his point of view, if he's telling the truth anyway, he suddenly found us alive after years of being dead, he gets turned into that sprite thing, and suddenly we're all suspicious."

"You can't really blame us for it though. But yeah, I mean when he first appeared he was so happy to see me, like you know as well as I do that he's always so poker faced and into the 'ironies', but he looked as if he'd never been so happy. I know he never really got on with his brother that well, everyone he knew was lost in the floods and we were his only real friends."

"Yeah, guess we should cut him some slack. Where do you think he's gone?"

They looked at each other, completely blank on ideas, and decided to split to cover the most ground. They searched for an hour, but before long Ms Pyrope found them, and informed them that their presence was needed in the conference room, and to their surprise they found Davesprite already there, avoiding their gaze. The sunglasses helped with that.

"We shouldn't have reacted like that," murmured Jade as she sat down beside him. She took his hand and squeezed it gently. "Sorry."

His expression remained distant, but softened a little.

John sat down on the other free seat beside Davesprite and put a hand on his shoulder. "Yeah we were kind of massive dicks. Just after all the stuff that happened with the Condesce we're feeling a little wary, you know? Sorry though."

As Davesprite was about to talk, the mutants all barged into the room, looking harried and rather hungover. Instead Jade leaned over and whispered, "Here we go…"

The three shared a giggle, but knew there were still issues that needed to be resolved among them. For the moment however, they needed to be a strong team in order to deal with the grouchy teenage trolls surrounding them, especially given how most of them seemed pretty adverse to the gentle glow Davesprite gave off.

"Right! This is the official planning meeting for the former residents of T.R.O.L.L's future attack on the Condesce. Fire away with your ideas!" Ms Pyrope said brightly while opening the curtains concealing the windows behind them, prompting more groaning.

It was clearly to be a long meeting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So five chapters to go until the end! AAAAA I can't believe it, hopefully they won't take too long. I started writing this at the end of sixth form and now I've almost finished uni, it's so weird, this story has been going on for so long. And sorry for how long this one took! I had the biggest uni deadline a few weeks ago, hopefully I do well with it UwU
> 
> And Homestuck is over! It's crazy, it's brought so much to me and been such a huge part of my life for years, just want to thank everyone who's been here and read this <3
> 
> From now on I'll do my best to update the chapters on here and fanfiction.net at the same time, but this is now completely up to date anyway :)


	6. Seal your face paint!

**== > Be Nepet!**

You are now Nepeta Leijon.

The conversation in the room had reached a standstill.

All members were squabbling with one another over which tactic would be best to infiltrate the Condesce's base. It had been approximately ten minutes since they had begun the meeting, and Nepeta's ears were flicking irritably.

"Wouldn't it be nice if we agreed fur once?" she murmured to Jade. The humans were looking more than a little overwhelmed by the situation, and she wanted to help placate them. She of all people knew how intense the group of mutants could be.

Davesprite leant over "The day that happens will be the day that you stop speaking in cat puns."

Nepeta barely suppressed a giggle before the room silenced.

"Here is the information we currently have on the Condesce's new base. We've managed to get a few satellite images of it, shown here..." Ms Pyrope projected said photos onto the table. "As well as this, here is a message that was broadcast before the floods."

"Hello, I am The Imperial Condescension," The video showed a positively glowing Condesce, and unlike previous appearances on the television as Feferi's 'aunt', she showed herself for whom she truly was; grey skinned and horned, those unnerving barracuda teeth of hers on full display in a horrifying grin. She knew she had won, and was not afraid to show it. "And I propose a truce to the bolder of you. In an hour a flood is going to destroy several costal areas of this planet, rendering millions of you homeless or dead. Ignore the models you may have seen prior with only relatively small areas being flooded, for that is no longer the case. The rivers will swell and the oceans will rise and you _will_ be affected. And if that does not snuff you, then the armies soon to be invading will.

'For those who want to suffer and remain miserable, then remain in your homes. For those who wish to survive and prosper, then join me and you can claim a piece of the new world for you and your family.

'Enjoy the floods." The Condesce blew a kiss to the camera, before the video stopped.

Karkat inhaled sharply. "Wow."

"That'th exactly ath hammy ath I'd expect from her. Thhe didn't let me down." Sollux remarked, a wry smile on his face.

"How did she, uhh, how did that get that to people?" Tavros asked. "I mean, it's not, as easy as people, uhh, think, to just hack something around the world like that, you know?"

"If she's got the money, she probably bribed a load of stations into it... or threatened them," Aradiabot offered, speaking up for the first time in a while. "Or both."

"So basically we could get in, but we have to pretend to be weak willed losers, is that the gist of it then?" sighed Vriska. "Is there no other way in? We're going to stand out like sore fucking thumbs."

"I dont see what the problem is here," said Jade loudly. "It's simple. Me and John will go first because we look like humans, and I doubt the Condesce is going to be personally looking out for us. We pose as refugees, see if we can make our way in and send information back to you."

"Okay, so even if that worked, by some fucking wine into water level miracle, you realise that doesn't help the rest of us at all? Not all of us are Mary-Sue enough to have powers and still look normal," growled Karkat. "What do you propose for the rest of us?"

Jade frowned.

"Well," said Nepeta. "When me and Equius were living in a human colony, we used make up and hats to purrose as humans. I mean, I don't know how well it'll work fur all of you, but I know Karkat and I could certainly go in with them."

"I hate to burst your bubble, but two humans who can't control their powers and Karkat are hardly an army, Nepeta," Vriska reminded, resting her head on her hand, her other arm still missing. "And if we're taking that approach then the rest of us will never be able to infiltrate. Have you seen our horns? There's no hat in the world that'll hide Tavros' or mine, for example."

"Fuck you too." Karkat spat.

"I mean, this probably isn't the answer you want to hear, but, you could always cut them off, right?" Silence filled the room as the mutants whose horns Jade was referring to stared at her incredulously. "What? I thought you didn't like them anyway?"

"How about we cut off your nose, huh?" Vriska snarled, and Nepeta wondered, as she often did, what Tavros saw in her.

"What I'm _shore_ Vriska means is that while we may not have wanted the horns at first, we've grown to like them! They're a part of our identity, chopping them off would be somefin like losing a limb." Feferi quickly interjected.

"She's got a point though, the Condesce wouldn't expect you to cut them off, would she?" Davesprite drawled. "It'd be a pretty good disguise."

"Yeah, but they don't groww back, that's the problem. Not to mention there's a' insane amount of nerwe endin's in them," said Eridan, then turned to Davesprite with a eerie grin. "Maybe wwe could cut off your wwings, it'd make _you_ more human too."

"Dude, if you're trying to be creepy then lose the accent, it makes your intimidation fall flat on it's face when you're there tripping over all your double-u's." Davesprite replied, completely unfazed.

Eridan pressed his ear fins flat against his head in irritation, and turned away.

"Cutting off our horns really does sound like the best bet though..." Nepeta said reluctantly.

"Easy for you to say, yours are concealable!" pouted Vriska. "You can't just expect us to give up something like that. Besides, can't I just use my power to change our appearances?"

"Have you already forgotten what happened in the basement last week?" Jade asked. "She may not have armed all her soldiers with the anti mind control visors, but certainly the ones guarding the entrance will have them."

Feferi shook her head, eyebrows drawn tightly together. "We'll have no one in the inside we can contact truly, efin if you do manage to sneak into the main hold where the refugees wait, though. What we reel-ly need is someone like that. I know we have Terezi, but-"

" _Terezi_?" Karkat exclaimed. "I thought she was dead?"

"Gosh, I hope not, pumpkin. Otherwise I have no idea who has been contacting me all these years!" Ms Pyrope smiled at the boy from over the table.

"And _no one_ thought to fucking _tell me that_?" he shouted.

"Well, we didn't think that you thought she was dead. Eridan knew, did you forget to tell him?" Feferi asked, confused, and Nepeta hid her mouth behind the back of her hand, attempting to look casual while hiding a smile. Drama was imminent.

"It, uh, must hawe slipped my mind?"

"Oh my fucking God," Karkat was clearly furious with Eridan, and it was apparent to everyone that the latter had probably omitted the truth to keep Karkat close. Sneaky bugger, though Nepeta decided that she may well have done a similar thing in such conditions. She had rather given up with her crush on Karkat, but she couldn't deny that he was hot and would gladly leap into Eridan's current position as potential love interest if there was a vacancy going.

"Try not to lose focus. This is a professional setting, you know," said Aradiabot. "As riveting as your love life is, we have shit to do."

Yep, Karkat was pissed off.

" _Anyway_! We need someone on the inside ideally," Feferi said loudly, attempting to dispel the tension in the room. "If we tell Terezi about the plan and somefin goes wrong then she could be killed. At the very least we need to secure her safety, and that of Kanaya's."

While a lightbulb did not appear overhead, Aradiabot's eyes grew brighter as she announced, "Vriska was telling me about her revival as what she is now. If they kept my body, I could be reborn like she has been. I could be the inside person."

"That's ridiculous, if not fur the fact alone that they've purrobably long since got rid of your body, it was burnt beyond repair and we wouldn't even be able to contact you _anyway_ , so it's not happening!" Nepeta argued back, surprised at Aradiabot's suggestion.

"What rubbish have you been filling her mind with?" Equius demanded, glaring at Vriska, who had the gall to shrug back.

"Hey, it's not my fault your sexbot wants to do something else with her life," she smirked, before being interrupted by two very angry trolls. "That was a joke, don't get your pants in a twist. I just told her about how I came back. That's all. If she wants to risk her life and be a human again then great, whatever. It's her life."

"You know full well that she probably wouldn't make it!" Nepeta spat.

"And why should I care? Like, this is so unlikely to work that I happily told her the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, or however it goes. Hey!"

Equius had swiftly walked around the table to where Vriska was and lifted her by the scruff of her jacket. With her new body there was little she could do to fight back other than clawing at his arms. Stupid lousy goddamn loss of strength.

Immediately though, Tavros, Sollux and Aradiabot were on their feet in an attempt to get the blue blood to let go.

"She's not worth it, Equius. And she's telling the truth," Aradiabot sighed as she prised the Brit from Equius' grasp. "It's worth a try."

"We're still good on the arm right though, Equius?" Vriska croaked, still winding them up, though she merely got a dirty look from the mechanic. The girl clearly had a death wish.

"Aradia, it's your body so it's your choice at the end of the day. But I honestly believe that this is going to result in nofin but your death," Feferi said softly. "And efin if you did manage it, you'd be tortured for information! As a friend, please don't do this."

"That is a risk I am willing to take." Aradiabot replied, completely poker faced.

"There's no point! Listen to Feferi, you're not going to be reborn, you're just going to die," Nepeta pleaded. "Please Aradia, don't do this."

"There's nothing you can say, Nepeta."

"Aradia, please. Whatever you want modifying I'll do for you, just don't do this," Equius begged, his voice breaking. The robot did not so much as flinch.

"Don't be tthtupid," Sollux chimed in, and Aradia inhaled sharply before freezing, looking for all intents and purposes like a statue. "You're gonna go kill yourthelf for nothing. If you wanna die don't do it when we need you; you're one of the throngetht people here."

"Someone's been messing with my head though. I don't want to live in a body that can be hacked," Aradiabot shook her head. "I'm not an asset like this. I'm a hindrance."

"Thtop being a drama queen. You're finally back, we're not lothing you again," Sollux smirked at the robot. "For thome of uth you've been dead for yearth. It'th nice having you back, you know?"

Aradiabot said nothing, staring at her lap, then nodded. "Okay."

Nepeta felt her eyebrows twitch. Of _course_ she would listen to Sollux over Equius and herself. The maroon blood needed to get a grip. While Aradia was her friend, Nepeta was still very frustrated at her actions, not to mention a little insulted at how little the robot cared for hers or Equius' opinions.

Clearly Feferi noticed her frown, as the princess reached an arm around the smaller girl's shoulders and gave her a one armed hug.

"So, like, what are we doing then?" asked Karkat, still in a huff. "Because if you're wanting to send people out to fuck knows where then you're gonna have to send them pretty fucking soon."

Feferi pouted, drumming her fingers on the table as she thought.

"If we send the vaguely human ones amongst us out tomorrow morning. We'll attach hidden cameras and microphones to you, though, shit, Eridan you're the only one who knows the code for communication aren't you?"

"What code?" asked John.

"Morse code," Eridan replied.

"Oh! I know that, more or less." Jade piped up.

Tavros frowned. "If you, uhh, didn't think any of us knew, Morse code then, why did you send us a message in it?"

"It was the best we could do, we just hoped for the best." Feferi shrugged, a bashful smile on her face.

"Typical FF." Sollux snorted. "Tho who we thending?"

"Okay if you're shore, then John and Jade, you'll go. Karkat, if it doesn't cause you too much pain you'll join them, along with Nepeta."

Nepeta bit her lip. She needed to be at the base with Aradiabot, otherwise who knew what she would end up doing.

"I need my right hand woman keeping an eye on things," Feferi said softly. "Don't worry, I'll look after everyone for you!"

"Alright…" Nepeta replied, returning the smile reluctantly. At least she would have alone time with Karkat.

"Jade? This isn't meant to be an insult so please don't take this that way, but as I do not know the extent of your Morse code I will be sending Eridan with them."

Fuck, never mind.

"That's understandable!" Jade smiled.

"Hey, if you're sending John and Jade then I'm going with them." insisted Davesprite.

"Oh, uh well shorely you can see that you're not the most human looking thing out there..."

"Neither's Mr Boy Idol over there," shrugged the sprite. "Sides, if you don't see the wings and tail I'm pretty human looking."

"Oh yeah, other than the glow you emit, the fact that your hands are scaled and clawed, and the all the fucking feathers you shed. Yeah, perfectly human!" snorted Vriska before being elbowed in the side by Tavros.

"You're not gonna be able to hide his horns or ears either though. If you've got one non concealable freak going with them why not two?"

"Well he's going to be how we communicate with you, so...?" Feferi replied, a little baffled. "I understand you want to stay with your friends but you could jeopardise the mission."

"Well, we're kind of a package deal, Ms Feferi," John said. "You can't have one."

The princess pouted, fiddling with her goggles before she nodded. "Okay, but you're going to have to share a hiding space with Eridan. You sure you can handle that?"

"Whatever."

"And if you mess this up I will personally kick you out the window!" she said, a serious expression on her face.

"Got it, princess," nodded Davesprite.

"Well if it's what it takes... Anyway. You will report back to me at every opportunity and let us know what's happening. Relay the information to Eridan if you want specifics."

"But couldn't our lines be hacked?" asked John. "Especially if you're using the same code that the Condesce's lot use..."

"NOP-E!" Feferi beamed, puffing out her chest with pride. "Sollux here wrote us some code which, fingers crossed, should take so long to break into that it's essentially unhackable! Isn't he great?"

The usually sarcastic Sollux looked flustered but pleased at Feferi's praise, and Nepeta smirked, they were sickeningly adorable together. Aradiabot turning her head away from the pair did not go unnoticed though.

"When did you have time to keep it up?" Karkat said, confused.

Sollux held up the phone that he had kept on him for his entire duration at the Retainment Organisation. "Practithed on thith. I managed to get pretty deep into the Condethe'th thtuff with it."

"I thought you were just playing games," Vriska snickered. "Guess you were being productive after all, nerd."

The yellow blood shrugged.

"When you get there just get a feel for the plaice, and report back. Don't do anyfin stupid, okay?"

"Yeah, _mom_." Karkat rolled his eyes, and Feferi puffed her cheeks out at him.

"Nepeta is in charge, and she, Karkat, John and Jade will be the team going into the base. Remember to seal your face paint you two! Eridan, you will wait on the ship for their return each evening and report everyfin in. Davesprite, just stay out of sight and out of trouble, you take the night shifts and make shore no one gets onto your boat. Try to control your powers too.

'John, Jade, come up with new names, yours are way too unique. That goes for you too Nepeta and Karkat, but yours are pretty common so you can get away with more. Plus the Condesce thinks the two of you are dead." Feferi checked with her aide that it was all recorded, then turned back to the group. "Now, for the main attack..."

**== > Let's get to the boat!**

You are now Nepeta Leijon and you are getting on a small boat.

The boat they were getting onto looked very familiar...

"Guess who we found down here!" Feferi grinned as she leant onto the railing beside Nepeta. "We were taking the refugees to a camp that we've set up, registering them and all that, and one such boat that we found was occupied by a Mr Zahhak and his family."

"My dad?" Nepeta asked, unable to believe what she was being told. "Are you sure? Where is he?"

"Nepeta!"

The girl turned to see Arthor emerging from the door behind her, Equius in tow.

"Daddy!" her voice broke as she ran towards the man and hugged him tightly, weeping. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Ahhh you're too big to pick up now, I'm going to have to put you down," he laughed. "I couldn't believe it when Ms Peixes herself contacted me, and hearing that the two of you are safe was the best news imaginable."

"It's been a tough few years, but we've made good furiends." Nepeta shrugged. "We're safe now, but there's still so much at stake, so I'm going to be going out with an advance team to repurrt what the Condesce is doing. Equius will have to fill you in on what happened, but gah what happened to you? Is everyone okay?"

"Amylia and I had a son, Sendul. He's almost five now, and four of the staff came with us," Mr Zahhak smiled. "Its been rough but we made it. And I've been told that we are soon to be taken out to live in a camp while the army fights back against the Condesce. We would have stayed in the family home but it became an island, completely cut off. Perhaps one day we could return... Anyway, no matter. You have important things to do, and I'm sure you will do us all proud. You always have done."

Nepeta wiped her eyes with her sleeves, trying to remove the tears the best she could. "Equius! Get over here!"

Her adoptive brother shuffled over, before she grabbed them both into a tight hug.

"We'll all see each other again soon, promise?" she asked, giving them both best puppy dog eyes. They nodded, and she grinned before saying her goodbyes. Being the first on the boat, she got to pick her bunk before the others, though the two humans and their sprite soon followed. They were shown where Eridan and Davesprite's hiding space would be: a cold, damp hold under the main body of the ship. most of it held the supplies for the journey, along with the equipment needed to contact the army base when needed. It was apparent that Feferi had spent a lot of time trying to help fight the cold, as the walls were lined with a thick layer of insulating foam, and a pair of heat pads were resting against the wall.

"Your best bet is going to be wiping the walls and floor clean each evening for the condensation, and leaving the door open overnight so it can dry out. Chuck a few blankets in there and you should be warm enough," Feferi said to the sprite. "It's not clamerous but it'll do!"

Davesprite shrugged. "It's not like I have to spend all my time in there though, right?"

"We-ll... you'll spend a lot of time hiding in the day there. Even with the blinds on the windows, people will still be nosy."

Eridan arrived a few minutes later, and Feferi ran over the hiding space basics again, before going into depth about the communication hub.

"Karkat!" the tyrian blood ushered him in. "You'll be staying here with Eridan and Davesprite. Your job is to make sure no one comes sneaking through the windows, and to give the order for Eridan and Davesprite to hide if needed. You'll have to get made up every morning like Nepeta before the blinds are opened. Though if Nepeta's team need help then go with them. That should be it!"

The rescued mutants came to the dock to say goodbye, with Tavros wishing the best of luck to Jade and John, before giving Nepeta a hug goodbye, telling her that they would have to roleplay again sometime. Equius gave Nepeta another tight hug, with Aradiabot close behind him. Feferi and Eridan huddled close together murmuring something to each other in another language, before Sollux bumped fists with Karkat.

"Don't do anything thtupid, athhole." the Gemini winked.

"Now I'm gonna just to piss you off." the smaller troll growled, though the smirk on his face made it clear that neither held any ill will towards the other. In fact the pair had been good friends for quite some time, though their aggressive banter towards the other was often mistaken for hatred, either platonic or romantic in Vriska's case, who was convinced that they had a blossoming kismesis. She happily confessed as such to Nepeta, though the cat girl was not as convinced with her ship, and decided that Sollux and Karkat would make a bad couple. Definitely not because Nepeta wanted Karkat to herself... of _course_ not...

In an unexpected turn of events before the boat departed, Vriska dashed forwards and gave Eridan a hug that appeared bone crushing, though that would not be hard with her new robotic arm.

They waved at their friends until the fog that hung above the sea created a curtain between the boat and the pier, then the six headed below deck to sit around the table.

"So," Nepeta said first, bringing up a map on the screen of the table. "This is the course we'll take. The boat is fancy so we don't really have to worry about guiding it! We should be at the Condesce's base in five days. We spend two days scouting out and seeing what happens, then we report back to Furferi and the rest will head ofur in another five days. Any questions?"

"Yeah, howw come it's goin' to take fiwe days?"

"Well, this is a solar boat, so it runs on the sun. Normally, there would be a big battery in the hold for night travel, but because you and Dave are going to be hiding in there we had to take it out. Plus, it looks more like we really are fleeing if we're in a non military grade boat."

"Eh, I guess so..." Eridan shrugged.

"So what do we do for the next five days?" Jade asked.

"Up to you! We can just have five days off really, though I suggest you send a few test messages, Eridan. Get used to it, you know?" Nepeta replied. "No more questions? Purrfect! Now, Karkit- um, Karkat, I'll show you how to put on the face paint, if, if you don't mind."

Nepeta internally cringed at how she had tripped on her words, but to her relief he had not noticed.

The ship's bathroom was relatively spacious given the setting but nonetheless cramped, and the close proximity to her crush was making all the blood rush to Nepeta's face.

"Um, s-so first you set down a base layer like so," she instructed as she sponged the paint over his face. "You'll have to relax your frown there grumpy, or I won't be able to give a smooth coat!"

That was probably one pet name too far, shit. Sure enough though he softened his face until it fell into a neutral expression, and Nepeta was thankful for the fact that Karkat's eyes were shut, as she grew even more flushed.

"And, and then we, um, once that coat is dry we add a second one, softly dabbing with the sponge so it gives an ev-en coat."

"Got it. Then what?"

"Have you h-heard of contouring?" she asked, a weak smile on her face as he looked up at her. "So basically I'm just going to shade and highlightyurface."

"Uh, didn't catch that bit?"

"Highlight your face, sorry. Um, so shadows in the corner of your eyes, along and under your nose, and just here..."

God, his face was close to hers, eyes closed and lips slightly parted. Nepeta really wanted to kiss him, the urge was maddening but that would be stupid. They were going to be living together in close quartets for almost a fortnight, and at her likely inevitable rejection, they would have to awkwardly work side by side... she would never live it down.

Besides, this was not how she wanted her first kiss to be. Despite constantly being up in everyone's business about relationships, and being one that some even came to for advice, she had never been in one herself. No. If her first kiss was something she could plan it would be after Karkat had asked her, bashful and probably shouting, to meet him on the roof at midnight. She would arrive there, clad in the cutest clothes she could find, to find a table set up beneath the stars, lit by candles with a pair of handmade cakes on the table. They would taste awful, but she would not care. Then, he would invite her dance by the moonlight, dip her low to the ground and kiss her.

' _Jeez, that was cheesy even for me_.' she thought to herself. But that was the dream she had always had.

The human look suited him amazingly, but all too soon his eyes opened again as he gave her a critical look.

"You alright? Why'd you freeze?" His words were concerned but his expression suggested that he found her actions somewhat weird. Nepeta supposed that she _had_ admittedly suddenly stopped dead in her tracks for a good half minute.

"Just forgot the next part, that's all! B-but I remembered, I just have to highlight down the nose a-and the cheek bones. Add a bit of blush, and we're done! Other than the, uh, sealing spray." Nepeta sprayed the sealant while she tripped over her words, then stepped back from Karkat to the best of her ability, letting him look in the mirror.

Due to the Condesce meddling with the sea levels, the army base they were in had taken only the essentials, and thus Karkat would have to share Nepeta's make up. Accordingly, his vivid red eyes contrasted with the dusting of olive green across his cheeks.

"We managed to find some contacts too, to hide your eyes," the real olive blood said softly, glancing at Karkat's face as he studied his new face in the mirror.

"Wow, I look almost like I did before..."

"Where were you furom?"

"California, but my grandmother was from India, so I had the same deep tan. You're British though, right?"

"Yes, furom Scotland. Well, furom... God I can't even remember anymore, that's awful isn't it? My parents were from the UAE I think," she giggled. "Do you know how to put contacts in?"

Karkat snorted. "Of course I do. Hey, why do you talk in those annoying cat puns all the time anyway?"

"Oh, I, uh, didn't think they were annoying... They're just a habit I picked up..."

"Don't listen to him," a voice from the ship shouted. Davesprite? "They're adorable as fuck."

"Uh, well I used to rolepurrlay with Equius, and I used to speak in the silly puns, and I guess it kinda stuck?"

"You mean the creepy guy who sweats all the time?"

"Hey! He's not creepy!" she retorted. "And he's getting a lot better at controlling the sweating thing..."

"Whatever, sorry. Anyway, I guess I just cover the rest of the skin up with clothes, right?"

"Yeah. A beanie should cover your horns too."

"Alright, thanks." Karkat said, still looking at his reflection.

"Don't worry about it, it's no purr... problem."

Nepeta smiled, then left the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

"Oh, Nepeta!" Jade reached out and grabbed the Leo's hand once she sat at the table. "You could do so much better."

"What?" replied Nepeta, grabbing her hand back in shock. "I, I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Yeah you do. Don't waste your time on him, you deserve much better." the sprite drawled.

"Oh, well, he's much nicer when you get to know him, you see," Nepeta shrugged, fiddling with a lock of her hair. "I mean you barely even know us!"

John fixed her with an overly serious expression that was clearly meant to be somewhat comical. "Fair point, but Davesprite's a great judge of character."

"Oooh, go on then, what infurmation can you extract furom me?"

Davesprite lowered the sunglasses hiding his eyes, and fixed his intense orange gaze upon her. At first she felt a little exposed and uncomfortable, but upon noticing that, he pursed his lips over dramatically and steepled his fingers.

"Well, I can tell that you have an awful case of being fierce and fabulous. I'm sorry, it's terminal."

At this, the girl snorted and hid her mouth behind her hands.

"Damn it, I thought you were being sea-rious!"

Jade smirked. "That is _not_ a cat pun!"

"Oops, yeah I've picked up a few of Feferi's sea puns after hanging around her so much."

"Dang, still can't believe that's the actual Feferi Prices," John said, looking almost starstruck. "Like, she's a pretty big deal you know?"

"Sounds like someone has a crush!" Nepeta snorted. "Nah, I know what you mean. When I was a kid I'd always see her on TV and wish that I could be furiends with her, and now I am! She's just so lo-fur-ly isn't she? She's the one who organised the relocation of all the paw people at the bottom."

"Aww, good for her!" Jade smiled. "I know the last empress we had was an absolute butt, or so I heard anyway..."

"Well I guess the Condesce was the last empress huh, and she must have just pretended to be her own daughter so she it wasn't suspicious how old she was. Wonder how she made such a convincing human though?"

"Yeah I wonder that about my grandma too, like Feferi was telling me about how she was the scribe to the leader of this big rebellion that happened back when the caste system was first put in place. She sounded pretty badass, but yeah if like the Condesce she was a mutant the whole time then I don't know how she hid it."

"Hey, so if Feferi is the Condesce's grandchild then I guess the whole thing about tyrian bloods being the closest relative to Anastasia was a load of bull," Davesprite pointed out. "I mean it was obvious because she died with the rest of them didn't she?"

"Dunno, it was a long time ago and my grandpa didn't teach me a lot of history!" shrugged Jade.

"And we didn't exactly learn history from the Condesce either," Nepeta giggled. "Anyway, I need to go check on the control room, back in a bit."

"Have fun!" the lime blood replied jokingly.

"You know I won't!"

The ship's controls were in a room at the front of the ship. A wheel and other such controls were laid out before two chairs, though at the moment the course they had plotted into the ship's computer was doing all of the work, and it appeared as if a ghost was steering.

Fog still clung to the surface of the sea, so despite the time being midday, it felt like early morning still. Nepeta sat in the captains chair, slouching down as she fixed her eyes upon the horizon.

"Hey, Nep."

Nepeta jumped and instinctively brought her arms into a defensive stance, eyes darting about the room.

"Wwhoa, wwhoa, it's just me," And indeed, it was just Eridan stood in the corner. "Didn't mean to frighten you."

"Oh. What are you doing in here?" she asked, a little suspicious.

"Jus' wwatchin' the sea. I wwould go outside but it's fuckin' cold an rainin' to boot."

Nepeta shrugged as she sat in the captain's chair. "Alright, just don't touch anything or you're done fur."

"Wwho do you think I am?" he pouted.

Before her was the screen showing their course. Everything seemed on track still so it was safe to assume Eridan had not messed with anything. A nice change.

While this had been the boat her family had owned, and as a result one that she had sailed in a number of times, she had no idea how to use it.

"Lookin' a little lost there, Nep. Wwhat's up?" Eridan asked, sliding into the seat beside her.

"Hey! If this is another weird way to hit on me you can think again."

"Wwhat? No, I just wwant to help is all."

"Oh," Nepeta said sheepishly. To be fair on her, the seadweller's reputation preceded him so she had every right to be suspicious, but it seemed as if he knew this himself too, and looked no more grumpy than usual. Huh. Nepeta turned back to the controls and snorted, "Well, I guess you'd have to be purr-etty desperate to hit on me anyway."

"Nep, you knoww wwhat they say. You gotta lowe yourself before you can be lowed."

"Purr-actice what you purr-each, fishy," she smirked. "Anyway, what do you know about boats?"

"Touché, kitty. An I used to hawe one like this."

"Well, um, could you purr-lease teach me how to use it? If you can still remember that is..."

Eridan smiled and agreed.

* * *

**== > Okay let's be someone else now, how abouuuuuuuut... Jade!**

You are now Jade Harley, and you feel as if you're going mad from the cramped conditions.

Two nights had passed since they boarded the boat, and Jade had got up, queued for use of the bathroom (Eridan always took forever doing his hair) then wandered outside to watch the ocean while the ship's solar panels warmed up. It was a lovely morning; the sea was unusually calm and there was not a cloud in the sky. Jade let out a deep sigh before stretching her arms over her head, reaching as far as she could.

Thankfully it seemed everyone had gotten used to the living conditions after the first night, and there was not as much tension between Karkat and Nepeta, nor between Karkat and, well, everyone. Once she had a good, firm talking to the irritable troll she decided that he was not so bad after all, but Jade had still told him off for being a 'complete and utter dick' to Nepeta, though he claimed that he was simply trying to dislodge her firm crush on him without making it awkward for everyone else on board. Jade reminded him that it already _was_ awkward for everyone else on board and he decided he would talk to her at some point.

Good.

Nepeta was a good person, and Jade felt bad for her constant bossing about at the hands of Karkat, when otherwise she was so independent.

"Hey, Jade. Sup?" Davesprite asked as he floated out to stand beside the lime blood. "If you keep up frowning like that your wrinkles'll get wrinkles."

It was strange; if she ignored the lower half of his body then it was almost as if she was talking to the real Dave. She then averted her eyes from him in embarrassment, reminding herself that he _was_ the real Dave.

"Hi, Davesp- I, uh, Dave!" she replied. The sprite's expression barely shifted. "Did you sleep well?"

"Not really. Never liked sleeping on my front, and these bad boys mean I can't do anything else."

Jade remembered being woken in the night by one of Davesprite's wings resting over her. The downy feathers at the top had been so soft and warm that she made no protest and quickly drifted off to sleep again, though he had pulled them close to his back once more when she woke up the next morning.

It was strange. While he undeniably glowed, it was not at all invasive while sleeping, as the light was dim and warm, almost like sleeping beside a fire.

With a giggle she said, "One of them landed on me last night, you know?"

At this comment she could see his cool kid façade slip up for a second. "Shit, you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be? It was really comfy actually! The boat gets so cold, so it was like having an extra blanket almost."

"Oh, well, I'm glad I could help then."

Jade smiled at him. While he maintained his poker face, she could see him idly picking at one of the scales on his fingers with a talon.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine," he replied, a little too quickly. "Honestly."

"If you're sure..." Jade pouted, clearly unconvinced. "Hey, so, about your legs."

The sprite sighed before muttering, "I'm not a fucking zoo animal, Jade."

"I'm not... I wasn't trying to be rude, Dave. Sorry if you thought I was."

"It's okay, I know you weren't," he pushed his hair back from his forehead. "Your eyes okay? It's really bright..."

"I'm okay! My eyes are a lot darker than yours, remember?" she said with a smile, though admittedly was squinting a bit.

"Sorry, yeah. Legs. No fucking clue what's going on with my body to be honest."

"Will my hands just pass through it?"

"Dunno, give it a try."

"If you're sure," Jade prodded where his thigh would be gingerly, but found that it was as solid as her own legs, then prodded some more, before she heard Davesprite supress laughter.

"Jade, stop, that tickles."

At this she grinned devilishly, and launched a full scale attack, tickling him all over as he let out reluctant giggles.

"Your laugh is so cute," Jade snorted, stopping at his plea for mercy. "You should do it more often!"

"Well, not had much of a reason to laugh recently, you know?" he shrugged, though still seemed flushed from the tickling. "That sounded less cheesy in my head."

"It wasn't cheesy, just sad," replied a period of awkward silence, she then said, "Dave, I… I just want to apologise again for what we said the other day."

"C'mon, Harley, I thought we moved past that?"

"I still feel awful for it. I just… God, it was the last thing you needed."

"Well, I can't stay _that_ mad at you," he smiled.

"You're such a pushover," Jade nudged her shoulder to his. "But seriously, when this is over I owe you, I don't know, a really big ice cream sundae. If it still exists that is!"

Davesprite just smiled at her, and Jade noticed how one of his wings had moved to rest feather-light on her back. It was warm.

At their eyes meeting, they both glanced away quickly, but she soon watched him from the corner of her eye again.

The more she looked at him, the more she felt a strange feeling in her stomach, and she knew fully what was happening. She was getting feelings for Davesprite, or was it Dave? Dave had always been a friend, and they had both treated the other as such.

Perhaps her growing feelings stemmed from how he seemed more mature than the other Dave… or perhaps it was because deep down, Jade had realised for a while that Davesprite held more than platonic feelings for her. But still, she had practically raised him!

"Uh, so do you remember when you were a kid? Like a sprite kid, even," Jade rambled, hoping to distract her mind. "You were pretty much a baby bird."

"Don't really remember a lot, other than very vague memories. It was weird. I died, and then suddenly I was back in that basement, but with these weird memories of you and John," Davesprite turned back to look at the sea. "It's like trying to remember what happened the night after getting wasted. Like someone else took over my body for a bit and then let me back in."

"Huh. Well I guess that's probably for the best. I mean, you _totally_ imprinted on me when you were a baby bird,"

Davesprite shook his head, smirking, "Jade, _ew_ , stop. You're somehow making it even weirder than it already was."

"Sorry, I'm just really confused by all this, like you I guess…"

"No, that's fine, I get it. I wish I could tell you but I have no idea either," said Davesprite. "I just hope that by the end of all this I can go back to being normal, but I kinda fucking doubt it."

"You still look great like this though! I mean, you can fly, right? That must be pretty awesome," Jade said, then turned to him with a sly look in her eyes. "Say, I don't suppose you could lift someone, could you?"

"Nice try, Harley. I can do this floating at normal height thing no problem, but flying is a different story. Think I still need some practice,"

"But –!"

"I know. I don't get it either," he shrugged, then smirked. "So, you think I look great?"

"Shoot," she said sheepishly. "I mean, you looked pretty scruffy when you first appeared, but you _were_ on the verge of death. You look nice now though. Plus, now you've had a haircut, and the sunburn's gone you're actually kinda… um…"

Jade paused, aware of the fact that she was rambling, but found herself unable to stop. In a way it was nice to get it off her chest before it all built up.

"You're really pretty, Dave," Done. Her life on the the boat was over. "So… um. I… Urgh."

The lime blood fixed her gaze upon the waves shifting below them, hoping with all her might that some horrible sea monster would appear and eat her up. That, or she would throw herself off the boat, either sounded good to Jade at that moment.

"Sorry, didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. It's just all the time I spent alone after you and John were killed, in my timeline anyway, made me really think some stuff through," Davesprite's eyes flickered to the right, avoiding Jade's. "I just uh…"

"You just what?" she asked, glad to not be the only one about to say something stupid, and leaned in a little closer subconsciously. She noticed that his face still had the same smattering of freckles across it, but that his eyes were more of an orange than the red they were before. The wing resting on her back seemed to curl around her, pulling her towards the boy. Neither minded.

"I really missed you, Jade. I mean, fuck, I tried to ignore it, but I really like you. As a friend, I _thought_ , but then the more I thought the more I realised I really screwed up," he muttered, face growing redder and redder. "Crap, this is so dumb. So…"

Well, they were heading to their death anyway. Jade weighed the pros and cons from the actions she was planning, then shrugged.

Sliding a hand along his jaw, Jade gently pulled the sprite's head closer and rested her forehead against his.

"It's a bit silly, but still cute," she smiled. Davesprite's breath fanned out across her face, and they enjoyed the warmth of being so close together for a few seconds. The butterflies in Jade's stomach began to flutter even more with his face so close to hers. She entwined their hands before he leant forwards and almost hesitantly brushed his lips against hers.

"Jade? We need you for something," Nepeta called as she pushed the doors to the deck open with her back, and both Davesprite and Jade leapt apart, faces flushed. Thankfully, the troll had not seen anything. "We're having a bit of a problem with the solar panels, and you said the other day you know a bit about fixing them?"

"Hey! I'll be right there, give me a sec, Nepeta. Just sorting stuff out."

"Alright!" Nepeta grinned, and ducked back inside. The door swung shut behind the cat girl, and the pair stared at the floor, awkward and unsure of how to proceed.

"I, um, I guess I should go see what Nepeta wants?" Jade said, and began to walk towards the door, noting the look of anxiety on Davesprite's face. She could not simply walk away, no matter how much she felt it would be for the best. Turning around, she instead marched towards him and threw her arms around the sprite's neck before kissing him passionately. "Sorry, couldn't leave without doing that!"

She gave him a soft kiss on the forehead, before all but sprinting to the door and shutting it behind her. Resting her head on the cool metal, she spent a few moments grinning to herself, before walking briskly to where Nepeta was.

Later on, when all the occupants of the ship were sleeping, Jade felt a weight settle upon the top of her sleeping bag. A wing, to be exact. She slept soundly that night.

The next few days were filled with hands grazing in passing, stolen kisses when no one was about and nights spent with their fingers entwined in the space between their beds. They were a day away from the Condesce's tower, and accordingly they had passed a couple of ships making their way towards it as well. In the day time, only John and Jade could stay on the top of the boat, occasionally joined by a made up Nepeta, and kept on near constant alert for pirates; they had discovered the hard way that some of the refugees were willing to go to extreme lengths for food.

At night, the pair would volunteer to keep watch for the first shift of the night together, then sneak out onto the top deck and enjoy the brisk sea breeze and pollution free sky overhead. The stars were amazingly clear, clearer than they had ever been for Davesprite, as before they had been obscured by the pollution of the city. It was a risky venture; even with the pair of them huddled under a blanket, as the soft glow he gave off could attract other ships that were not confined to movement in the daytime. Nothing of interest happened most nights (other than the occasional sea creature popping up to look at the boat) and they spent the hours sat side by side, talking about the past, and the days ahead posing as refugees in the Condesce's base.

The sprite was aware that Jade and John were more than competent for the job, but he still worried for them. It was to be expected. After their death in his timeline he had become somewhat overprotective and far more pessimistic than Jade's Dave had ever been. Jade could spend months reassuring him that John and herself would be fine, but he would still chew his lower lip whenever he thought no one was looking, and worry himself out of sleep. The bags under his eyes grew darker with each morning.

It was the final night before they arrived at the Saltwater Tower, and stuck with the final lookout shift, sunrise was but a few hours away. While the sun had not yet peaked out over the waves, the sky had still lightened considerably and illuminated the fog that surrounded them.

The lack of sleep had finally caught up with him, and Davesprite had fallen asleep on Jade's shoulder after just a few minutes of being out on the deck. While she was in a somewhat uncomfortable position, the lime blood was glad he was getting the sleep he needed, even though her arm had gone a little numb.

It was peaceful.

Jade could feel Davesprite's heartbeat, sounding slow and steady against her skin, and while the wind bit at her cheeks and ears, his hand was warm in hers. Not warm enough though, and she pulled the collar of her sweater up higher.

Though she would not let Davesprite know, Jade was worried for the events about to unfold, and wished that she could have spent more time in the relative safety of the government base. Unfortunately, there was nothing to be done, and she accepted that. The sun rising as it did every morning settled her a little though. Regardless of what was about to happen, the sun would continue to rise and set.

"Dave," she murmured, shaking him gently. "You need to get up now."

His grip on her hand tightened as he mumbled in his half asleep state, before he sat up straight, groggy but awake.

"Can't believe you just let me sleep, Jade," he grumbled, but with a smile so Jade would know he was not genuinely annoyed. "Fuck, it's cold."

"Come here!" she said, and wound her arms about him, pulling the blanket tighter as she did so. "You almost missed the sunrise."

"Well I kinda did, I mean it's already risen."

"Not entirely! The sky's still pink."

They watched it for a few minutes, before giving the area one last sweep and heading back down into the main body of the boat, giving John and Nepeta the go ahead for the next shift.

* * *

 

A loud buzzing sound woke Feferi. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she wriggled out of Sollux's embrace and leant over him to switch the alarm on his phone off.

"Honestly," she mumbled with a gentle smile, more to herself than her sleeping boyfriend. "I don't know why you set it if you don't wake to it!"

She shook his shoulder until he sat up, groggy.

"Time to get up!" she said, giving him a soft kiss on his forehead before kicking the sheets off and padding over to where her clothes for the day lay folded.

"Urghhh," he groaned, grabbing at the now absent covers half-heartedly. "How did I end up with a morning perthon?"

Feferi stuck her tongue out at him.

Not too long later, the pair were seated at a table with the remaining mutants and Ms Pyrope.

"This morning we received a message from Nepeta. They have arrived safely at the Condesce's base."

It was now their turn to set off.


End file.
